The Punishment
by LittleMaggie
Summary: After a fight, Draco and Hermione are Locked in a room 2gether until they get along,as punishment.They find a secret that sends them through time 2 see scenes from L&J Potter's lives.R/R. Will continue. Chapter 18- the ending. WARNING: D/HR!Pairing CHANGE
1. "I have done little less of nothing, yet...

****

Author's Note: This came to me when I was doing homework a while ago. I HATE Draco/Hermione fiction, but I just had a good idea of how to present one. I don't know why…anyhow if you don't LIKE Draco/Hermione then don't read this, but it's also Harry/Hermione a bit later on. Anyhow, if you disapprove of the pairings then spare me the headache and don't read and flame, all right? 

Note: The Dr/Hrm. is one-sided meaning one of these people likes the other but not vice versa. For example, Draco likes Hermi but she doesn't like him back, or Hermi likes Draco and he doesn't like her back. You figure it out as this story progresses. Hint, hint: It's Harry/Hermione. Think about it, people. Sheesh.

~* 1 *~

Hermione bit her lower lip and then tried hard to scribble into the margin of her paper a few last words to finish her long, eloquent essay. It lacked originality, that she knew, since she wrote an extensive paper on the numerous wolverine cases that plagued a place named Blackburry in the late fourteen hundreds, which was somewhere in northern Scotland. Professor McGonagall told the class to pick a topic that would be challenging, but Hermione didn't have much time lately and chose a topic that was very extensive and covered in many books in the ancient Hogwarts library.

'… _and thus, the Blackburry wolverine cases were closed thanks to the quick-thinking witch, Grizelda Periwinkle.'_

Hermione squinted at the paper, holding it away to see if it looked even-spaced. If not, she'd more or less have to rewrite the entire parchment. She hated when her margins didn't line up. She wrote so neatly and evenly lately that it surprised her. 

Just as he held her paper up, she felt a hand snatch it upwards with a laugh.

" Hey, Hermione."

Ron's freckled face peeked out over the edge of the paper, which was now in his hands and not hers.

" Ron, give it back! I spent **_hours_** on it!" Hermione leaned forwards, the entire table groaning as it slid forwards on the tiled floor.

Ron read the first sentence. " I don't think I wrote any more then you did in your first paragraph." He turned his back to Hermione when her out-stretched hand tried to grope the paper back into her hands.

" Maybe if you and Harry didn't spend your evenings reading the Quidditch News Weekly, you'd have had a great essay." Hermione put her hands on her hips. "Give it back!"

" Always bossy." Ron flipped the parchment to the other side. " Look at how you write. It looks like some sorta blueprint, with how all the lines are perfectly straight."

" It's called 'caring about my work'!" Hermione rolled her eyes.

" I call it 'caring **_too much_** about your work'!" Ron put the paper down on the table and Hermione rushed forwards, sending the table forwards on the tiles once again. The scraping sound turned heads in the library.

Draco Malfoy, reading some boring book about his own project a few tables away, looked up. " Lose weight, Granger, you're pushing the tables around when you move about."

" You keep your nose out of this." Hermione muttered under her breath. She pushed her paper into one of her schoolbooks and then tenderly closed the book shut, the leather and gold binding soft but smooth under her fingers.

Draco shrugged and looked down at his book again, flipping a page angrily. 

" Come on, Ron, let's go find Harry. We have to wish him luck on his game tonight." Hermione smiled proudly. " I bet Gryffindor's winning the House Cup this year."

" Are you going to the game?" Ron asked, softly.

" I wouldn't miss it for the world." Hermione cooed. She then looked down at her book nervously. " Do you think Harry would be in the common room now?"

" Probably." Ron suddenly grimaced. " I just remembered. I promised Harry I'd get him a book while I'm here. Something about house-elves, since he said that'd be easy to research." Ron turned to glance at the shelves of the library with distaste. " Wanna help me look?"

" I can't." Hermione said. " Sorry." She motioned with her eyes at the essay that was pressed tightly in between the pages of her textbook. " I'm pretty much booked for the entire afternoon, up until the Quidditch match."

" But your essay's done!" Ron complained.

" You just don't want to look through all those books yourself." Hermione replied. " Here's a hint, go to the bookshelf to the far left, alright?"

Ron nodded and then walked off, grumbling about how Hermione was leaving him like that. Hermione shrugged and left the library, not looking back.

~*~

Hermione rushed to the Quidditch match through the grass outside of Hogwarts. The benches were filling up quickly and she could see the players already preparing to leave the building and to begin the game. She caught sight of the red and gold Gryffindor robes and then felt her lips tug up in a smile.

She had brought her books with her, to do some research on her essay, just to make sure she got her facts right. She also had her precious essay with her, the one she spent countless hours of grueling labor to complete.

" Hermione! Come sit here!" Someone called out.

She turned and saw Neville, Ron, Lavender, and Padma sitting on the seats. Parvati was ill in the nurse's office from a minor potions mishap in Snape's class. 

" Coming." Hermione made her way up the bleachers.

" I hope Harry beats Slytherin's butts." Neville said, then gasped as the Bertie Botts Every Flavored Jelly Beans he had in his hand suddenly tipped and spilled all over the place.

" Oh, Neville!" Hermione said, and then helped them sweep the candies out of the way so nobody sits on them. The colorful little pebbles fell to the ground beneath the seating.

The game slowly began, and Hermione watched closely as Harry and his teammates began the game against Slytherin. It was a long match and after countless tries to catch the Snitch, Harry finally dove down quickly and swiftly, dodging a Bludger, and managed to catch the golden little ball. It wriggled and shook in his hands, but he held it tight as the scoreboard flashed the results of the game:

Slytherin – 90

Gryffindor – 230

Everyone clapped and cheered and when the uproar settled down, Hermione headed back to the building. She opened her book and began to read as she walked, seeing Ron's red hair out of the corner of her eyes so as not to lose track of her friends. 

Her eyes scanned row after row of words, and she tried desperately to find a certain quote she pulled into her essay. As she was just about to close her book in frustration, something hit her in the back hard.

Hermione flailed her arms and then fell face-first, her books pressed tightly to her chest, into a giant mud pit. Then, as she scrambled awkwardly to stand up, screaming in shock, she felt something fall on top of her, pinning her down. It was someone's body, warmth penetrating through it, and she heard angry grunts as the body immediately shot off of hers. Hermione coughed, trying to wipe the mud off her face.

Then, to her horror, she saw it: her essay! It was floating in the mud, completely destroyed, covered with black and brown muddy speckles. " No…" Hermione whispered. She jumped up to her feet and pulled it from the mud.

A few people gathered around her now. Hermione began to scream:

" Who did this! How dare you!"

She spun around in all her fury. Behind her, also completely spattered in mud, was Draco Malfoy. He looked ready to burn the world in fire, the way he was cursing everything from Hermione herself to Goyle who tripped and then pushed him down, all the way to the very mud in the pit.

" You better apologize!" Hermione screamed at him, her voice so loud a few people covered their ears.

He didn't even look at her.

" DRACO!" She hissed, her hand shooting up. She wanted to grab him by the collar, to shake the beans out of him. Her hand shot out, ready to try and pull something off in her desperate fury, when he caught her hand and said:

" Don't touch me, Mudblood." Then, he released her arm, leaving an even, muddy handprint. Hermione nearly exploded in rage. Tears stung in her eyes, and the paper she held in her hands was suddenly squished as her fingers formed a fist. She'd knock this stupid idiot, right in his stupid Malfoy block. She'll rattle him so hard, his ancestors will roll over in their graves. Heck, she'll blast him into next week. She'll kick him so hard his ancestors will still cry in agony.

" I hate you!" She shouted, finally. " I hate everything about you!" She pushed him, from the back. He turned around, ready to defend himself.

" I won't let a girl push me around." Draco said, decisively. He looked ready to hit her back if he had to. Hermione pulled out her wand, ready to blast him with a spell that'll make his hair stand on end. Draco reached for his own wand.

Except she felt hands pulling her back.

" Miss Granger, Mister Malfoy, we will not tolerate this behavior. Until you both apologize to one another, you will be punished severely."

The strict tone of Professor McGonagall's voice was unmistakable.

" I'd take any punishment." Draco said, still holding his wand. Hagrid was holding him back, though. " Let go of me, you oaf." Draco struggled to free himself of Hagrid's gigantic hands.

Hermione nodded. "What's the punishment?"

Professor McGonagall smiled, almost meanly. " I had a case like this before, you see, two students that kept picking and fighting one another. Remember, Hagrid, what I did?"

Hagrid seemed to remember, however faintly, for he nodded. " Yer not goin' tah like this, 'Ermione." Hagrid warned.

" … I locked those two students in one room, and I had them stay in there for as long as they had to, and I'd give them food but ample to do. And I'd let them come out once they would apologize to one another." Professor McGonagall said.

Hermione's mouth dropped open.

Frankly, Draco seemed to go through a series of heart attacks, or something, for first he paled, then he swayed on his feet, then his face turned very red and angry, and he shouted:

" That's cruel and unusual punishment! My father will hear of this!"

" Your father won't be happy to hear that you're pushing around girls, Mr. Malfoy." Professor McGonagall replied coolly. " Now, what will you do, take the punishment and stay in the room, together, or apologize right now?"

The hateful looks on the two student's faces showed which answer was evident.

TO BE CONTINUED!

Give me 10 reviews, let's say, and you'll have chapter 2. Now, that's just an average, I mean, its not like I'll not write at ALL or anything, but I'd like to have 10 reviews. 

P.S. Don't like the fact Draco might like Hermi or vice versa? Then at least don't complain to me. I don't support these pairings either, I'm strictly H/Hr, but I just had a GOOD IDEA for a story. So there.


	2. "Here is thy room, thy lonely room"

Disclaimer (as for chapter 1): I do not own Harry Potter. Be glad I don't, for I have the oddest ideas when it comes to Harry Potter stories.

~* 2 *~

Hermione closed her eyes, finally.

" This isn't happening."

" I'm afraid it is." Professor McGonagall seemed to frown deeper, and the deep crease between her eyebrows deepened, if possible. " Now, both of you! I need to know your decision."

" I most certainly will _not _apologize to him!" Hermione turned away from Draco. She looked down with the most remorseful sigh at the simply destroyed paper in her hand. " I see no reason why I must apologize as well. He was the one who pushed me, destroying my paper…"

" …it was an accident." Draco interluded. " I didn't do anything either. I have nothing to apologize for. It was she who pushed me, and on purpose." He kept his eyes down, not even looking at Hermione as he spoke. " It's childish to argue. I'm not apologizing, and I'm not taking the punishment."

" I've had enough with you already, and if I had any sense whatsoever, I'd have done this a while ago." Professor McGonagall turned to Hagrid, who was trying desperately to keep Draco from squirming away. " Hagrid, take him to the spare room."

" 'Ere's no reason to take 'em down to the spare room, it's fall now an' poor 'Ermione an' - - an' Draco will be cold." Hagrid protested, his dark eyes sad for Hermione. She was one of Harry's friends, and therefore a friend of Hagrid's. It was never pleasant to watch a friend get into trouble, no matter who was at fault.

" Are you telling me it's in the underground dungeons? Near Snape's room?" Hermione cried out.

Just then, Harry, red-faced and still in his Quidditch robes, followed by Ron who had summoned him, appeared. Harry looked at Hermione, then at Draco, and then at the mud pit. The very picture seemed to speak for itself. " Oh, Herm…" Harry began.

" Shut up, Potter. Stay out of this." Draco said, angrily.

Harry ignored Draco and went right on: " Professor McGonagall, don't let Hermione get in trouble. It'll **_kill_** her, you know how much she wants to keep her reputation, being a perfect and all…"

" I'm afraid that my decision stays." Professor McGonagall felt a twinge of pity. "Say goodbye to Hermione for she will be away for a while. Don't worry, she will be well-provided for, with food, and we'll take her out every morning and evening for a brief session in the bathroom for showering and anything else a lady might prefer to do." Professor McGonagall looked sternly at Ron and Harry. " Nobody is to visit – or talk through the door – to Hermione while she is in the chamber with Draco."

" You can't leave her with **_him!_**" Harry shouted.

" Professor, you're practically sending Hermione out to her death!" Ron said in an agitated voice. "What is it with Hogwarts and all these odd punishments?" Only a few days ago, Ron had cast a spell that managed to turn his desk into a mule, and after a desperate struggle to keep the mule still so it could be turned back, Ron was forced to polish Quidditch trophies – the Muggle way. He was used to it by now, anyway. The trophies looked like mirrors.

" Order will be maintained. This is fool-proof, I've done it before." Professor McGonagall then said: " Let's get this over with. Will someone go to tell Professor Dumbledore about this, so he is aware? I believe he is in the entrance hall, using various spells fix up the mess on the stairway. It appears Neville has spilled more then his jellybeans lately." 

Neville, standing nearby, turned a deep shade of red.

" See ya, Hermione." Harry said, softly.

Hermione looked at him and felt her chin quiver. She'd miss Harry the most, being locked away from all civilization.

' _Scratch that. All **sane**_ _civilization_.' Hermione thought, taking a look at Draco. He was saying something in a low voice to his goonies, Crabbe and Goyle. Both of them seemed to be grinning rather stupidly, and not just in their normal manner. It was a grin that also included some sort of ape-like mischief. No doubt, Draco had set up some plan to get himself out of the room already.

" Can't you use a spell to break out?" Ron asked Hermione, in a whisper. "You're bloody brilliant, you know. You should know some spells that could do that."

" If I know McGonagall, she'll seal the room with anti-magic spells, and perhaps anti-charm locks too. Even jinxes could be sealed, since those could do considerable damage to doors or walls." Hermione thought hard. " I suppose I won't have any defense against Malfoy then."

" I wouldn't even **_touch_** you." Draco sneered at her.

" Stop listening to our conversation!" Harry shouted at him. " For once, mind your own business. You're meddling with our conversations an awful lot lately."

" Like you don't meddle with my business?" Draco inquired. He was right, of course. Harry had often tried to catch up on Draco's daily rounds of whispering evil ploys to his friends. Harry did this as an attempt of self-protection, though, since he was afraid Draco's evil-doings might be aimed at Harry or his friends. 

Hermione was slowly led away by Professor McGonagall. Hagrid followed closely behind, dragging Malfoy rather roughly. Malfoy turned to his friends and said, almost menacingly:

" I'll show **_her_**. I won't speak to that Muggle-loving idiot, if I spend eternity in there."

Goyle called back: " Can we have your stuff if you die?"

Malfoy's eyes narrowed. " Father will hear of this, and he will NOT be happy. I will have him withdraw me from this school. I'd rather be home-schooled then go through this nonsense."

" Good luck." Hermione murmured.

" I don't need your good luck!" He said.

" I was sarcastic."

" Well, good for you." He kicked through a clump of grass and then struggled to turn around again. He had a few last words to say.

" Bye Harry! See ya, Ron!" Hermione shouted, then winked at them while adding: "Remember not to go see me."

Harry and Ron nodded back. 

~*~

As the doors of Hogwarts closed behind Hermione, a sickening feeling filled her body. She was led down what seemed a million staircases, walking for endless minutes like a prisoner to the guillotine. She looked back at Professor McGonagall. " Please, professor…"

" Not another word, Miss Granger. I am sick and tired of your arguments with Draco. I have dealt with this before and I will deal with it now. You might thank me someday."

" I'll send you a postcard from the grave." Hermione murmured.

They stopped in front of a room. The door swung open. Inside the room (a basic twenty by twenty feet room with walls painted a grayish-white, with an old chart of England hanging on one wall), Hermione saw two chairs, one in each corner of the room. In the middle of the room was a desk on which there were a few stacks of papers and a few quill pens and ink canisters. The windows were gray and ghastly and the room smelled of some sort of sickening flower.

" How depressing." Hermione commented.

" This is an insult. What is this, the servant's quarters? I demand to speak with my father at ONCE!" Draco shouted.

" Stop acting like the spoiled child you are, and listen." Professor McGonagall motioned at the two chairs. " You can sit over there, and Hermione can sit in the other one. You can move your chairs to the desk and draw or write if you'd like, and when you eat you can share the desk."

" I'm not sharing any desk with a Mudblood." Draco said under his breath.

" Never say that word on the Hogwarts premises again!" Professor McGonagall's mouth formed a tightly squeezed line. " And if you do not share, you do not eat!"

" I vow not to even speak to… to _her."_ Draco looked ill.

Professor McGonagall shrugged. " You will learn to be good friends in the end."

Hermione looked at Hagrid as the door was being shut to the room. "Who were the two people who hated one another that ended up in here?" She asked.

" Lily and James Potter." Hagrid replied, unanimously with Professor McGonagall. 

Then, with a rusty creak, the door slammed closed.

****

~*~

A/N: Please review me! Please, I beg you! I have only 1 reviewer! Don't make me beg… oh and remember, there is no Hrm./Draco in this, only Hermione and Harry, and then if you haven't guessed by now then you didn't read carefully but there might be a certain one-sided pairing approaching.


	3. "Words can break a silence, but not hono...

Disclaimer: I own nothing but the computer I write this on and my imagination. And you can't take the latter away, anyhow.

~* 3 *~

Hermione eyed the room suspiciously. It seemed drafty, and when she took a step inside to check her suspicions, she found that she was absolutely correct in her presumption. The room wafted with a musty scent of old women's perfume and the smell sunk into everything in it due to the constantly present breeze, or so it seemed.

She turned to watch Draco stalk to the chair in the opposite corner of the room. He slumped down into the chair, yawning loudly, and then he crossed his arms across his chest. 

Hermione went to sit at her own chair. 

Time seemed to ooze by. She watched out of the corner of her eye as Draco shifted, changing positions. Finally, he began to pace the room, staying strictly to his one side, as if the room was cut evenly in half.

She shrugged and then unraveled the destroyed essay that she still held. The mud had dried and thick dirt caked the paper instead. She peeled some of it off, but it came off with a thin layer of paper in some parts, ripping out whole chunks of words. Her perfect margin was now ragged, missing bits of text and the paper itself was wrinkled and she could feel how moist and cold it was beneath her fingers, still drying.

Draco paced for a few minutes and then stopped to look out the window. The problem was, the window didn't face outside at all. It faced some sort of other room. This one was properly lighted and the thin streams of light from inside the other room flooded Hermione and Draco's room as well.

Draco twisted the cord of the curtains. The curtains slid shut.

'_Odd place for a window.' _Hermione thought, suddenly. She figured that this was once probably a joint-classroom, where the two teachers might converse through the windows and share ideas of lessons. This worked well in classes where students achieved teleporting themselves from one room to the next. The teacher could always check through the window to see if the student accomplished it.

Hermione was satisfied with her logical explanation for the window. She could see Draco still puzzled over it.

_' Too bad he's not smart enough to figure it out'. _Hermione thought bitterly.

Draco turned away from the window unexpectedly and he could see Hermione was observing him. He frowned and then paced to the other side of the room to look at the map of England.

He seemed to amuse himself for a while thinking up random names of places and then trying to locate them on the map with his finger without looking. After a while, he began to say the names quietly to himself as well.

It was amusing to watch how he tried to entertain himself. Hermione wished that Harry was playing the game instead. She would have joined Harry and they'd end up playing for hours on end, perhaps.

"Greenwich." Draco's finger landed about an inch off the spot. " Damn." He suddenly grew bored. He hadn't guessed for more then twelve or thirteen places. Hermione felt the dull tone in the room return.

Draco's soft footsteps returned, a very annoying sound, as he paced back and forth again. She wondered if his foot had fallen asleep, like hers felt at the moment. She could feel the annoying tingle, under her robes, from the thigh to mid-calf. It was a fun sensation, almost, now that she was so bored. She knew if she'd stand up and walk on it, she'd get the prickling feeling to cross her legs. That would keep her mind off the misery of the situation.

_' I can't do that, though. Draco would think I am copying his pacing'. _Hermione thought, and then sighed deeply.

The room was dead silent once again.

~*~

Hermione had begun to count the seconds, and every sixty she would raise a finger. When all her fingers filled up – 10 minutes – she would repeat five more times until she had an hour. Then, she would start all over again. It was the most monotonous, tedious, annoying moments of her life. Three hours, five minutes, thirty-four seconds later, Hermione heard a light rapping on the door.

Draco had fallen asleep in his chair, his head down a bit. He jerked his head up and then said: "Wha…"

" Harry?" The hope in Hermione's voice was genuine.

" Yeah, come closer, Hermione." Harry replied.

" Okay." Hermione moved towards the door and she knelt down on the ground. She could hear shuffling the door. 

Harry pushed a candy underneath the door. It was flattened and looked unappetizing at the moment, but she figured she should be grateful for it anyhow. 

" Wow, thanks, Harry." She said, happily. She unwrapped it. To her surprise, it was accompanied with a note.

" I miss talking to you." Harry said, and she could bet he was grinning as he said it. Hermione nodded and realized he couldn't see it, so she said, reassuringly:

" I miss talking to you, too."

Draco shifted. He had tried to pretend Hermione wasn't there, but it was getting harder now that she was talking. It was hard to block someone out if they were talking.

" The candy can melt, it's one of those chocolate bars from Hogsmeade. You know, the one that has a surprise filling in each one?" Harry asked. These candy bars were new to the candy shops of Hogsmeade, of course, and it had immediately become a crazy fad.

" Those are my favorite." Hermione said. " Thank you so much." Harry's fingers appeared beneath the door. She took his hand and squeezed it happily. " Thanks." She said, once again. " What class are you heading for, again?"

" Snape's Advanced Potions." Harry replied. " It's nearby."

" I figured."

" Are you cold?" He asked, concerned.

" Sort of."

" I'm going to get you something to cover yourself with." Harry said. " The crack beneath the door is pretty big, maybe I can sneak you a blanket."

" Professor McGonagall will probably bring cots or something. She'll be by soon to take me out to brush my teeth or my hair, and for the bathroom." Hermione sighed. " It's so dull."

" I'd bet!" Harry replied. " Hey, guess what!"

" What?" Hermione asked.

" Ron's got that card, the priceless one that has Victor Krum on it, but his last name's with a 'C'?"

Hermione flushed at the name. She remembered Victor far too well. Victor Krum – how she disliked him now! He had wed while he was away. Of course, he was much older anyhow, but it came a shock to Hermione as she opened a letter from him to learn Victor had married. It was the oddest feeling. She thought he liked her.

Harry recognized the sudden silence in the air and he immediately said: " Sorry, Hermione, I forgot about what happened. But the card's worth a whole bunch of money because of the mistake."

" Hmm." Hermione didn't sound too interested.

" Well, do you want a blanket?" He asked, finally.

" Sure." Hermione said.

Draco shifted again. He was balancing on the back two legs of his chair so that it balanced and teetered awkwardly on the two legs. He looked as if a stronger gust of wind would knock him flat on his back. Hermione grinned at the idea of the proud Malfoy sprawled out on the floor, arms spread like a fallen eagle.

Their clothing was still muddy, of course, but Hermione realized Professor McGonagall didn't have the patience to even let the two of them change into clean clothing. The mud felt heavy and hard against Hermione's skin. The mud that dried on her hands managed to crust off, but it hurt to pull it off, especially on her arms. She realized that Draco hadn't even thought twice before he quickly cleaned himself off. For a boy, he was awfully concerned about being clean. Maybe it had something to do with his honor-filled upbringing.

After this moment of silence passed, Harry shifted outside of the door and then said: "I'd like to stay, but you know how Snape can be if you're late."

Hermione nodded, forgetting she was behind a door from him once again. With an embarrassed voice, she added to her nod: " Catch up with me later, okay, Harry?"

" Sure thing." Harry said. " See ya, Hermione." 

" Bye." Hermione heard him walking away. She looked down at the candy in her hands and she grinned, holding it close to her heart. She didn't know why, but it seemed to horribly nice that Harry would stop like that. Of course, she knew that any good friend would do that, but it seemed to much more special to her. She began to eat, then turned to see that Draco looked rather hungry.

Swallowing her pride and taking her manners in hand instead, Hermione asked: " Would you like some?"

Draco looked up at her.

" Do you want some?" Hermione repeated and then raised the chocolate bar.

He shook his head and then turned to face the window facing the other room. He stared at the rows of empty desks in the room with a look of utter boredom. He was still proud as all hell, mud-spattered or not. If he were fallen-eagle on his back, a chair lying on top of him, he would still be poised and honorable. It was unnerving.

Hermione shrugged. " Well, alright, but don't say I didn't ask." She took another bite. " It's good."

Draco shrugged back.

__

'Ah. So body language will be the key', Hermione thought. '_Might as well be useful to know, if I gotta ask him something.'_

She realized that he was still sticking to his guns: he would not speak to Hermione again. She wondered how long he'd keep that up. It was hard to remain in the same room for days and not to speak to the person with you. Eventually he'd crack.

Hermione knew she wouldn't apologize, though. The essay she wrote lay crumpled on the desk in the center of the room. It's presence would forever influence Hermione's attitude to Draco, and that was that.

Nothing would change that.

Right?

~*~

A/N: Hmm, well, Hermione's not as tough as Draco. REMEMBER! H/HR! Don't crack your keyboard in half just yet, Gary Skinner. ^_^;;;


	4. 'Ista Puella Nuquam Plorat' (Latin. "Thi...

Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter or all related syndica. I can't even spell syndica. 

~* 4 *~

Some time to the end of the evening, Professor McGonagall brought a blanket for Draco and one for Hermione, along with two small pillows. When she stood in the classroom, she waved her wand and two cots appeared for the two students to sleep on.

" How was it today?" Professor McGonagall ventured.

Draco didn't reply, he only frowned angrily. 

" It wasn't too bad." Hermione spoke up. " We're not speaking." She added, seeing as how Draco made a low, gruff noise in the back of his throat that sounded very much like a sound of doubt and disagreement with Hermione's statement.

" Are you hungry?" 

Hermione shook her head. This wasn't true, but she didn't feel ready to share the table with Draco. She didn't want to sit at the same table as he would sit at… she looked at Professor McGonagall with concern. " Professor?" 

" What is it?" 

" Well, I'm a little hungry, but… do you think I can just eat separately from Draco? I find it very unfair that…"

" Please, Hermione, I find it perfectly fair. You'll see that when you enter the adult world, everything you do will be with other people. If you don't learn now to get along with everyone, you will fail at any job you attempt." Professor McGonagall seemed very pleased with her assertion, but Hermione was doubtful. If this was true, then why was she being forced into such punishment now? She might as well enjoy her childhood and then take the misery of adulthood later, not now.

Draco spoke in his drawling voice, finally, but only to McGonagall and not to Hermione: " My family, for as long as I remember, prospered just fine. We don't rely on others to get somewhere. I doubt that everything I will do as an adult will revolve around others."

Professor McGonagall reddened. She wasn't very pleased with Draco's remark.

" Hogwarts was established on grounds of peace, to have little wizards and witches shaped into intelligent young adults. I have said this once, if not a million times, that I, nor Dumbledore, nor anyone on these premises, will tolerate violence and malevolent behavior between students. I haven't seen such childish bickering between fifth years for years now. Many years." The teacher replied at Draco's snide words.

Draco crossed his arms across his chest and teetered on the back legs of his chair again. To show his utter lack of respect to McGonagall's choice of punishment, he yawned loudly, then said: " I'm going to sleep. I hope **_she_** won't be here when I wake up."

With that, he began to set up his cot, angrily.

" At home, father would have other people set up my bed. A canopy bed, with a good mattress. And what's this? A cot, for Merlin's sakes." Draco muttered to himself, exasperated. He pushed down a feather pillow as a last touch to the cot, then flopped down on it, pulling the blanket up.

Professor McGonagall shook her head. " Sometimes the most stubborn mules grow up to be the most reliant on the farm, if given time."

" I wouldn't count on it." Draco said, pulling the blanket over his head, drowning the sound of McGonagall's angry scolding.

Hermione only sighed. She wished to speak to Harry and Ron. Mostly, she wanted to feel Harry's hand in hers again, just for a brief while. The briefest touch was enough to raise her spirits. Then again, one look at the insolent darkness behind Draco's eyes was enough to drop her spirits again.

~*~

Sometime in the middle of the night, Hermione heard a low scratching sound on the door. She slowly slid her legs off the cot and her feet touched the floor. Professor McGonagall had taken Hermione out to change, and she came back to coax Draco out of the cot. He was reluctant at first, of course, thinking that the Professor only wished to berate him on his behavior.

They both smelled clean, devoid of mud and dust on their bodies, and yet, Hermione felt this disgusting, mucky feeling on her body, as if she were still wallowing out in the mud pit in which her very hopes of improving her essay were scattered.

" Hermione!" A voice hissed.

" Ginny." Hermione said, with a tone of disappointment. Suddenly, her face brightened as she realized how rude it was not to sound glad. It wasn't Harry, but at least it was some contact with the world outside the chamber.

" I have an idea." Ginny's low, trembling voice said.

Hermione heard Draco shift in his bed.

" Shh!" Hermione held her finger to her lips and shushed the Weasley girl. Ginny giggled softly as an idea struck her head and she asked:

" Does he snore?"

" No." Hermione replied hastily. " Tell me, what's so important that you came at night? You'll get in a lot of trouble if Filch…"

" Don't worry, Filch is up to his ears handling Neville. Seems Neville forgot to do some essay and he was trying to sneak into the library, only to knock over that iron knight display, remember it?"

Hermione replied: " Not really."

" Anyhow…" Ginny paused, catching her breath. She must have run all the way through the dungeons. It wasn't very surprising, since it was cold, spooky, and at the same time dark down in these rooms. Hermione listened carefully as Ginny said: " I heard Harry saying that he will look for a book on how to cast a spell that lets you - - you know - - what's it called?"

" Describe it." Hermione pressed her hands to the hard wooden door. " Tell me!"

" You know - - you can walk through walls and stuff?"

Hermione didn't recall the word for this, either. She did remember reading about something like this in her second year. " Ginny, do you think Harry would…"

" I think he'll cast it on himself so he can walk through this door and come see you."

" Would it work?"

" I don't know."

Draco turned in his cot again. He let out an annoyed breath. His eyes opened and closed, focusing on the cold grayish-black wall in front of him. The whispering voices were beginning to annoy him very much, and despite how he tried to conceal the fact he was up already, he realized he'd have to make them know somehow that they were disrupting his sleep.

" Hush, Draco will hear us."

__

'I already do.' Draco thought, angrily. '_Go to sleep, Mudblood. And go away, whoever you are.'_

Ginny's voice fell as she said, gravely: " You don't think the spell's dangerous? He won't hurt himself, right?" Ginny was probably trembling behind the door. Hermione laughed quietly.

" He'll be fine."

" Good, because I don't want him to be hurt." Ginny let out a shuddering breath. " I like him, you know."

Hermione felt a sting in her stomach. It was odd hearing it said out loud and in the open.

'_Oh, please, you like **HIM?** Join the club, kid, so does Mudblood'. _Draco thought. '_Now go away.' _He turned on the cot again, clearing his throat so loudly he'd have easily convinced someone that he was hacking up bits of his lungs. Then, he took in a deep breath and yawned, stretching simultaneously. This ought to bring on the idea that he was waking up.

" Wow, he sleeps like a windmill." Ginny commented. " Tossing and turning like that. Is that healthy?"

" I don't know." Hermione shrugged to herself, smiling at the idea. " Maybe he has nightmares."

" His worst nightmare? Being locked up in a room with Harry." 

" Or with me." Hermione said, angrily. " And that's my worst nightmare, too." She shuddered and then slapped her hands down angrily on the wooden door, not realizing she did it until the sharp sound of her hands striking the wood rang in her ears.

Ginny shifted outside of the door. " Hey, Hermione, I better go."

Hermione understood this, and she said, sadly: " Thanks for coming. Tell Harry I can't wait until he tries to get inside of here."

" I'll tell him."

" Wait!" Hermione suddenly said.

"What?" Ginny seemed to have been heading down the corridor already, and she spun around noisily on her heels, the slippers she had on slapping in a puddle formed on the ground from moisture leaking down the walls. 

" There's a window facing the room beside this one. He can try and get into that room and talk to me through the window." Hermione liked this idea more then having him come into the room she was in. It was probably sealed from usage of such spells, too.

" Alright. I'll tell him." Ginny said. " Good night."

"Good night." Hermione replied, and then went to her cot. Suddenly, she felt the most horribly lonely feeling cross her, as if the sound of Ginny's retreating footsteps was civilization itself backing away from her. Hermione huddled her face into her pillow, feeling tears in her eyes again. She wouldn't cry, though. She didn't cry anymore.

She fell asleep; dreaming of leaning out a window while roses fell all around. Somewhere in the distance floated a note. Harry's note! She forgot to read it!

She'll do that tomorrow…

Too bad that Draco knew the note was there already. And he happened to be curious of its content, and at the same time thinking of revenge on Hermione, with how she kept him up at night.

He reached out, groping, since his cot was close to the desk, and his fingers fell upon it, tucked between an uneaten portion of a candy bar. '_What do we have here?' _He thought, pulling the crisp note open, at the same time whispering 'Lumos!'

Draco's wand, though sealed with the room so that no magical attacks could be made, illuminated the page anyhow, for ordering the wand to make a light just wasn't considered a bad sort of spell. At least, not in most cases, but right now he was making use of it in a way that would be considered bad.

He didn't care, though, for the words on the note were a sweet reminder of how stupid Hermione was, to leave it out in the open. Did she really think that Draco wouldn't open it?

~*~

A/N: well I retire at this point of the story for the day. Review, I will post the next chapter faster! Really!

I wonder why, each time I try to add a picture to my story, it doesn't work. I have a million images I drew of Hermione, Draco, Ron, or Harry. How do I add pictures to an html document? I attempt many times. I tried to add one in now.

Any help is appreciated from my readers. - Maggie


	5. 'When you look at the world through comm...

Disclaimer: I still don't own Harry Potter and everything related to him. J.K. Rowling owns everything! And her stacks of money from all this, too!

P.S. Since I read the Harry Potter books in another language then I don't know the exact translation of what Sirius Black asked Ron, Harry and Hermione to call them. I am guessing it's 'Snuffles' or something along those lines. If not then tell me in the review and I will fix it! Now for the story…

~* 5 *~

The delicate edges of the paper fell apart, to reveal words, scribbled tightly in Harry's less-then-perfect handwriting. Draco squinted to see better as the flickering light of the Lumos spell didn't quite do the job. The paper crackled loudly as he snapped the top back to keep it from folding closed. Hermione grumbled in her sleep.

_'Hey Hermione,_

So how is everything? I bet you're really bored in there.

Remember who Snuffles is? I got a letter from him.'

Draco stopped reading and then traced his eyes over the line again. Snuffles? Seems Harry either corresponded with some peculiar characters, or he wasn't right in the head. Draco shrugged and supposed that it could be either, for his dislike towards Harry greatly influenced how he interpeted the letter.

_' I think that his name will be cleared real soon. At _

least, I hope so. In other news, I told Ginny to 

come see you so it won't get suspicious that I'll

be coming down there so much. Ginny's supposed

to pretty much update you on some things.'

So then the girl that had come to see Hermione was Ginny Weasley. Draco suspected as much. Only a Weasley would just barge up to someone's door at the crack of dawn, or even earlier, to have a chat, and a chat revolving around Harry Potter at that. 

_'Is Draco bothering you in any way? I suppose it_

would be like him to either completely ignore

you, or put you down the entire time. Hang in

there, I suppose he can't hurt you without his

wand.'

Draco felt angry at that remark. He didn't know why, but reading about how he'd be so horribly mean to Hermione just didn't sound right. It sounded like him, to his surprise, but he didn't like Harry's tone about it. He didn't think it would bother Hermione much. She'd probably have been more bothered if he were nice to her. He turned the note around to read the last few sentences.

'I miss you a lot and I hope you miss me, too.

Love,

Harry'

Draco realized that Harry had crossed out the word 'Love' at the end and then only left his name in it's place. He suddenly felt incredible curiousity as to whom this Snuffles character was, but Draco knew he'd have to speak to Hermione to find out. He had said in front of everyone that he wouldn't speak to her, though, as long as he was in there.

A Malfoy's word was stronger then iron. Nothing could melt it, not even the fires of hell, or the fires of love, or anything else.

~*~

Hermione woke up to find the note lying in a different place on the desk, with Draco's wand resting beside it. She felt alarmed at first, then calmed herself by thinking, logically: '_Draco must have set his wand down and moved my note as he did it.'_

She nodded to herself, finding this a good excuse. Then, she stood up to read the note to herself. She was intrigued by the crossed out 'Love' and she even blushed at the thought, then realized a lot of people signed their letters with that word. In fact, when she wrote to Ron or Harry over the summer, she'd write 'With love' instead of 'Sincerely'.

But… why was it crossed out? Did Harry not want her to get the wrong idea? Was he telling her something? Or… was he afraid she'd figure something out?

Hermione's mind flooded with ideas and puzzles, and she didn't notice as she accidentally tripped over something. It was Draco's bag. Professor McGonagall had let everyone bring a little bag of items for personal use while in the room. Hermione had taken a brush for her hair, about four or five books, a soft teddy bear, and a couple pictures of her family.

Draco's bag was horribly small, though. It was really only a large satchel, made of good expensive leather. It had his name on it, stitched in curlicue letters, with gold thread. Something inside rattled loudly and she bent over to right it up only to see the edge of a photo frame peek out. 

Her hands trembled as she was tempted to see what it was.

Finally, she allowed herself to peek at the photo and was surprised to see it was a small picture of Draco, his mother, and his father. His mother waved happily while his father frowned sternly. Draco seemed more to his mother's side, with her hand gently put down on his shoulder, and her face smiling down at him. She didn't look so sour in the picture. Then again, the picture showed a much younger Draco, he only looked eight or so. The picture was faded and old, as if he removed it from the frame a lot.

Hermione put the picture back into the satchel and then went back to sit on her bed. She wondered when Harry would come to see her again. She missed him even more now that Draco wasn't awake. She felt truly alone now. At least when Draco was awake, there was someone else on the watch in the room.

Something ominous seemed to hang in the air and Hermione couldn't quite put her finger on it as to what it was.

~*~

Later that day, after Professor McGonagall came to offer Hermione and Draco breakfast – Draco immediately protested eating with Hermione and Hermione said she wasn't hungry – Hermione ended up sitting and waiting.

Draco was writing something feverishly, his tongue slightly out of his mouth, deep in thought. He hand flashed across the parchment, his neat handwriting quickly filling the page up. Hermione thought: '_He's probably writing a letter to his father, just waiting to complain about this all'._

Suddenly, she heard a voice outside the door:

" Hermione, it's me."

" Harry!" She couldn't help it, she ran to the door. " Oh, did you find out how to get into the room?"

" I found the spell, and I'm going to try it right now." Harry replied.

" Do you think you'd be able to get through this door? Maybe you should go into the room next door, like I told Ginny." Hermione said.

" The room next door?" Harry sounded surprised.

" Yes! It's adjoined to this one, separated by a wall, but there's a window peeking into the room." Hermione shook her head angrily. " I can't believe Ginny didn't tell you about it! It was really important, because…"

" No, that's not what I mean." Harry said. " Ginny told me about some room next door to this one, but are you sure it's there? There's no door."

" What do you mean, there's no door?" Hermione huffed.

" This is the only door to this side of the corridor. Believe me, I looked." Harry said.

" That's impossible!" Hermione shouted.

Draco looked up from his paper, his eyes narrowing. If it wasn't annoying enough that there was constantly some loser at the door, talking through it, now they were shouting. He realized that Hermione and Harry didn't really acknowledge his presence, so he looked back down at his paper, however reluctantly.

" I promise you, there is **_NO_** door!" Harry said.

" Are you absolutely sure? Isn't there another corridor running from the other side, maybe?" Hermione sounded desperate. " I mean, what's the point of building a room if nobody can get in… except through the window in here?"

" There isn't any other corridors. I checked on the way to Potions last time." Harry explained, calmly. " Don't worry, it's not like it matters. I bet I can get into this room."

" Why don't you try going through the wall of the room next door, instead, not the door?" Hermione persisted. " I don't think that you'd be able to get in through this door. Professor McGonagall sealed this room from all sorts of spells. It'd be nothing short of a miracle if she didn't seal this spell up as well."

Harry sighed. " I'll try to get into the room, then."

Hermione waited as the sounds of shuffling were heard in the corridor. Then, Harry began to chant a spell, slowly. Finally, the sound of fizzling, like a firecracker ready to explode, seemed to fill the entire corridor. 

" Are you okay?" Hermione pressed her ear against the door, as if she'd be able to hear what occurred better.

" Yeah, hold on. My body feels kinda funny…" Harry's voice trailed off.

" Harry!" Hermione gasped.

'_Shut up, shut up, shut up…'_ Draco said in a sing-song voice, over and over in his head, hoping that the message would somehow project into Hermione's head.

There was an odd noise suddenly, like the sound of something bouncing off the surface of a trampoline. Then, something hit the wall opposite of the side of the corridor that Hermione and Draco were on.

" Ouch." Harry grumbled. " Hermione, I tried to get in through the wall. I was halfway through when I just - - bounced off. It blew me right across the hall. It's like some sort of force field." He laughed at the words, though. " I probably made a mistake somewhere…"

" Probably." Hermione answered, cheerfully, trying to hide her worry. Why would the ordinary-looking room next door not let Harry in?

Suddenly, she had an idea. " Harry, I'll try and crawl through the window into the room next door, and then when I see you coming through the wall I'll pull you in, so then you won't be pushed back for some reason."

" Sounds good." Harry said. " I'm waiting."

Hermione scrambled across the room to reach the other side, then froze as she thought about how she might be blown back if she tried to get into the room, as well. After all, they haven't done as much as stick their hand through the window before. How could they know whether there was some sort of force shielding the room?

If so, though, wouldn't Professor McGonagall and Dumbledore know about it? They would have surely not let Hermione and Draco stay in the room if it had some sort of dangerous secret that nobody wanted them to know.

Unless… was it something secretive, between the last occupants of the room? 

" I'm going in." Hermione announced, decisively.

~*~

Author's Note:

Oh! I am a meanie! I am stopping right there and I'll wait for reviews! Ha!

__


	6. "What draws me to this place, this dark ...

Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter blah blah blah blah.

I'll be sure to get the books on tape! Oh and I read the books in Polish (and 1 in Czechoslovakian)! I dunno if I got all the questions answered from the reviews… anyway keep reading and reviewing! That's the ticket!

~* 6 *~

Hermione's fingertips skimmed the cold, hard parapet of the window, and she considered her choices. She could go right ahead or not go at all. Draco was watching her, and she knew that he'd laugh at her with his friends once this was all over. She hated being humiliated.

'_Here goes nothing'_ she thought, firmly, slowly pulling herself up. She reached into the room – and her hand went right through the image of a classroom. It seemed as if the little window view was only a deceptive, clever picture, made of a material that felt very much like water spray, as her hand went right through it.

Draco's mouth fell open.

" Holy shit!" He murmured.

Hermione ignored the swear, deciding that giving a lecture on it was the least of her worries. She drew her hand out, staring at it. The picture of the classroom next door quivered and then slowly came back to normal. As she looked at it now, it looked perfect, as if it really was there, an amazing hologram.

" Hermione, what's taking so long? Are you okay?" Harry's voice rang in alarm.

" I'm fine." She said in a rushed voice. " Oh, wow…"

" What? What is it?"

Hermione drowned Harry's voice out as she yelled: " Harry – this room – the window had an illusion in it, the room next door is truly something secret." Hermione stuck her head in, but just as she felt the shimmering feeling of the image on her eyelids, a sudden force pushed her back.

Her body hit the floor with a thump.

" Ow!" She grimaced, rubbing her elbow with a confused expression.

" What happened?" Harry sounded frustrated.

" I can't get in. It keeps pushing me back."

" Try and throw something inside."

Hermione looked around wildly. Draco, in his own confusion and curiosity, handed her his wand. Just as he realized the senseless, brain-less thing he did, Hermione whipped the wand at the window. It flew right through the image of the classroom and disappeared.

" Goodness." Hermione shuddered. " Harry, I threw a wand in, and…"

Suddenly, it hit her.

" Draco, you idiot, your **_wand!_**" Hermione exclaimed. 

Draco looked furious enough with himself. He bit his tongue, trying to keep the flood of words back, but he finally said: " Well, **_sorry_**, but I wanted to see what would happen, okay? Leave me alone!" Then, he shut his mouth again, turning his flushed face away from her.

" You're kidding me. You threw Draco's wand in there?" Harry laughed.

" It's not funny, Potter." Draco looked sick to the stomach. "Father's not going to like this, that wand was an old one, passed down in the family. It seems my grandfather had the same wand as me." He said the last bit to nobody in particular, or perhaps to remind himself of how priceless the wand was, and how stupid of a mistake he made.

" Well? Get it back!" Harry said. 

" We can't get in! The window won't let us." Hermione shouted back, exasperated.

" Stop yelling! McGonagall will be down here in seconds!" Draco said, using a raised voice himself.

" I don't believe this." Harry sounded tired. 

" I'll try again." Hermione walked up to the window, her hands clasping tightly on the cold windowpane. She decided to push her way in, and if the force of whatever was in the room would try to push her back, Hermione wouldn't let it by pushing on the windowpane. With all her strength, she lunged onto the windowpane, her head bursting through the image. Her entire head, up to her shoulder blades, was through, and she heard the distinctive pop sound of a punctured balloon. She felt a suction pulling her back into the room.

Struggling desperately, her knees pushing down at the wooden parapet, trying to balance herself so that her feet would be holding her back, Hermione looked around the mysterious room she was half-way in now. It was so very dark that she wondered if she'd be able to see anything. What was odd about this room was that light seemed to flood through the image of the classroom and into Hermione and Draco's room. Inside this dark, humid room, though, the light of the other room did not penetrate through the image.

Hermione couldn't hear anything going on in the other room. She blinked in awe as her eyes adjusted to the pitch-black. Soon she could make out dark outlines of objects in the room. The suction was getting worse, she felt her body getting sucked back. Her knees trembled, and her bruised elbow hurt so incredibly now that she could barely hold onto the frame of the window.

" Ouch!" She grimaced, as one knee finally let go. Her body went through a jerking movement and she was being pulled back. " No, no…" She fought hard, the darkness easier to see through. There was a bookcase close by, and she could see the glimmer of Draco's wand, slightly damaged by the throw and now sending off sparks. The rest of the room seemed too dark to make out still.

Her entire body vibrated and she pushed forwards once more. The secret of getting in was to try and plunge as much of oneself into the room at once. The wand flew in easily for it went at a quick speed, too fast for the suction to react.

Hermione felt her heartbeat in her ears, a pulsating and excruciating pain. 

Finally, she couldn't hold on any longer. The window was too small for Hermione to simply lunge through. She let go of the windowpanes and the sound of a trampoline bounce rattled the room. Hermione flew backwards and hit the desk hard.

" Hermione, are you okay?" Harry shouted.

Hermione felt weak. Her eyes closed. Her entire body hurt so much… the blow to her head from hitting the desk was too much… the room slipped into a sudden, familiar darkness.

~*~

" My, my. How did this happen?" 

The voice split through Hermione's blank mind. She felt a sensation in the back of her head. Her eyes slowly opened and she found Professor McGonagall standing over her, and Draco Malfoy on the other side of her. She was lying on her cot. Someone must have put her there. Whoever put her there wasn't considerate enough to cover her, though, or to provide her with a blanket.

" I didn't do it. I'm telling you, Professor, she tripped and fell, hitting her head on the corner of the desk. Just wait until she wakes up, she'll tell you I didn't do it." Draco said, angrily. " The nerve to accuse me!"

" Draco, what could she possibly trip **_on_**?" Professor McGonagall looked around the room accusingly. The floor was devoid of any items. The area around the desk was also uncluttered. The dust on the desk, right where Hermione hit her head on, had an obvious imprint of her hair and her forehead, and just the tip of her nose.

" I don't know!" Draco grimaced, staring down hatefully onto Hermione's face. She squinted to appear asleep. " Maybe she's clumsy." 

" I doubt it." Professor McGonagall shook her head. " Draco, one more incident like this, and I will have you pulled from our school. Your violent outbursts cannot be tolerated on school grounds, and furthermore…"

Draco looked very bored as she said this.

Hermione suddenly sat up, trying to yawn a bit as if she were awakening from a long, deep sleep. Her eyes went from Professor McGonagall's displeased frown to Draco's bored sulk. She opened her mouth to speak, almost to justify Draco's case, but suddenly thought better of it. Her essay, ruined completely, lay on the desk still. The chunks of mud that she had to painfully peel from her skin, wincing as it pulled on the fine hair on her arms, caused enough pain to hold a grudge on Draco for years.

Yet, she had thrown his wand into the other room, and she had begun to realize that perhaps the whole mud-pit incident **_was_** a big accident. 

" Hermione!" Professor McGonagall exclaimed. " Thank goodness you're alright. Should I notify Madame Pomfrey? If you feel dizzy, we might have to remove you from here."

Hermione wished to leave the room, but she didn't want to lie. Besides, she was intrigued in the secret of the adjoined room. Hermione looked back at Draco. His eyes suddenly softened as her eyes met his icy ones. There was a look of humanly hope, and almost a look of pleading, that seemed to float among the abyss of icy-blue and gray tangles. The color of his eyes always reminded her of two silk scarves, bundled up together – one ice blue and one gray. 

" I'm fine." She said, finally. " Professor, it was entirely an accident. I banged my knee on the edge of Draco's cot, and I fell." Her stomach sunk as she said this. Her opportunity to get Draco in trouble was over. Hermione then added: " Can I leave to go to the girl's room?"

Professor McGonagall nodded curtly. " I'll have to escort you, wait in the corridor."

Hermione saw this as a cue to leave.

When she found herself standing in the hallway, enjoying a brief few moments of freedom from the confines of the room, Hermione let out a breath of relief. Then, she looked to see if Harry was right about there being no door leading to the other room.

The wall she was leaning on was indeed devoid of any doors, windows, pictures, or torch-holders. In fact, the door to the room she and Draco were in was the only one in the corridor in general. This was odd to her, but she shrugged it off. The only unusual thing was the room with the incredible suction-force, the indescribably powerful field around it. What could possibly lie in there that could require such impossibly strict confines?

McGonagall's voice rang sharply from the room as she said, simply: " I am very sorry for my accusations, Mr. Malfoy, but I'm sure you understand?"

There was no reply.

" Do you need to… to step out of the room?" Professor McGonagall sounded guiltier by the moment. 

The reply didn't come for this question as well.

" Hermione will be right back. I'll keep the door closed." Professor McGonagall walked out and then closed the door. She looked at Hermione and then sighed. " That boy – his entire family for the matter." She lowered her voice so Draco wouldn't hear from inside the room: " I do wonder why he and his family are so concerned with honor and pride if there is so much wrongdoing and dishonor associated with them."

Hermione's eyes widened. She had never expected Minerva McGonagall, possibly the most secretive and uptight teacher at Hogwarts other then Snape, to say these words.

" Ah, Miss Granger, do not be so surprised that I see certain things." Professor McGonagall shook her head sadly. " I taught for a long time, and it brought me the joy of seeing marvelous witches and wizards grow up. And yet, there will always be a wormy apple in each barrel." She stopped. They were in front of the girl's room.

" Do you really think Draco's all that bad?" Hermione asked.

" I don't know yet. He has shown many tendencies to favor Dark Arts, and the Dark Side for the matter. I worry he will more then willingly follow his father's footsteps. Lucius Malfoy is well-known for his associations with You-Know-Who." Professor McGonagall's facial expression changed to that of a very strict, frightened one. " Miss Granger, you do know I hold you as one of my trusted students. Despite how it pains me to punish you this way, I know what must be done."

" I understand." Hermione said. She did somewhat understand why Professor McGonagall wouldn't want Draco to get away with being mean to students. There was only so much that a student can do without crossing the threshold into where it is simply too much. Perhaps Draco had crossed the line already, or he was dancing right on the edge of the line. Professor McGonagall clearly cared about her students, even Draco. Hermione knew that Professor McGonagall would suffer along with each loss her students felt.

It was a sad and comforting feeling at the same time. Hermione gave the Professor a brave grin, and she added: " I really don't think Draco would be all too bad."

" Everyone hopes so. With the power his father is achieving among various **_types_** of people, the worst blow – and greatest achievement for You-Know-Who - would be if Draco took Lucius's position. I'm sure you know that Draco could be easily tempted in it just for the power. I can see he likes power." Professor McGonagall shook her head. " I won't fill your head with worries, child, it's enough that I worry Dumbledore constantly with my premonitions."

" It's alright, Professor. At least you speak honestly to me about what's going on." Hermione then slowly walked into the bathroom. She turned the sink on and then let her hands soak under increasingly hot water. Soon it was scalding and she had to remove her hands, but she didn't feel the burn of the water much. Her mind was full with frightful ideas. 

Hermione knew that a lot of pressure was already on Draco's shoulders from Lucius. For some reason, though, hearing McGonagall tell Hermione things that she'd known for a while was worse then if Hermione had thought of them alone. 

She couldn't explain it, but through her distaste to Draco, she hoped he didn't take Lucius's footsteps. Hermione knew that Draco could turn back. He could make a complete one-hundred and eighty degree turn and turn good. Or he could just take the moderate path, the happy medium in between good and evil. And yet, how would Lucius react? What would Lucius do to Draco if Draco didn't acknowledge the importance of him being able to uphold the Malfoy power and influence?

Hermione was still worried as she fell asleep that night.

~*~

A/N: Okay, sorry, I had to add all that about Draco. I mean, that's more of my opinion on the way things are in the Harry Potter world, and I do think Draco joining the Dark Side would be very important, because I think Lucius has set up a lot of power and followers and stuff, and… okay I dunno if I am even making sense. Does anyone else think this? Will Draco turn Good? What is the mystery of the room? Why do my fingers hurt despite this was only 2,500 words (about a thousand more then the other chapters, but still!)

~*~

Oh and thank you for the reviews! I went from 27 reviews to 46, for just one chapter. At this rate, by the time I'm done with this story, I'd have many, many reviews. I am so happy!


	7. Semper Eadem - Always the Same

Disclaimer: I own nothing. Oh and this is shorter but I wanted another cliffhanger. *lol *

~* 7 *~

Semper Eadem

Hermione dreamed that night, a long and frustrating dream. She often had dreams reflecting on the events of the day. This time, she dreamed of running through a field, bare but a loose frock thrown over herself. She kept looking over her shoulder, expecting something gruesome to apparate from behind the bushes at any second. She kept running, the field rushing by her. Suddenly, her head jerked back.

She saw a fiery Dark Mark burning over a home. She didn't recognize it, but she ran towards it, crying out for any survivors in the house, so that they'd emerge and know it was safe now.

She stopped in front of the house, her eyes scanning around herself, trying to take in what was going on. There were Dark Marks rushing at her from all over. A hot poker stick suddenly was thrown towards her. Her hand snapped out, she saw a laughing figure cloaked in a long robe, a Death Eater. It was pressing the poker down at her hand, the iron red hot and burning her flesh at contact.

" What are you doing?" Hermione shouted.

" What does it look like?" The laughing voice was low and distorted. Suddenly, the laughter changed to a higher one and the hood fell back. It was Draco, Hermione knew it, despite the fact the person's face was blank, nothing but skin, as if she were horribly nearsighted and couldn't tell apart facial features.

The poker changed into a branding stick, pressed down onto her arm, and she felt the Dark Mark burn into her hand. The poker pulled back and she looked at the mark.

She saw Harry's face instead of the Mark, though. It was burned down in thick dirty scarred flesh.

It was sickening to look at. Hermione held her hand up to her mouth to hold back the vomit that rose to her mouth, and she then reached out to grasp the Death Eater, to avenge the mark burned into her hand.

Suddenly, she was inside a house, looking at a crying baby in a cradle. Dark shadows danced around the room, as if something horrible was lurking everywhere. Hermione spun around, the 'Dark Mark' suddenly gone from her hand, and she was facing a deathly pale image of a woman and man. They both held her arms out to her, whispering hoarsely:

" Help."

The crying baby in the cradle suddenly grew silent.

Hermione looked back at it, but it was gone.

The house spun around in circles, it was disappearing, the baby was suddenly in her hands, growing, becoming Harry Potter, older and older. 

Hermione sat up in a sweat from her bed, panting.

She looked around the room and then focused on the hologram window. Whatever Lily and James Potter hid in there, they couldn't just scare Hermione Granger away from it. Curiosity was the fuel for invention. Curiosity also killed the cat.

~*~

Hermione felt sick. It was her second day with little but some chocolate in her stomach. Her fingers rubbed the empty, growling hole that was her stomach. She looked up to see Draco immersed in schoolwork. Professor McGonagall's essay did not seem important to him, but now that he had little to do, Draco decided to write his paper. It looked very unorganized, and he rarely double-checked his book to see if he was writing accurate information. He could have just as well been making up his own essay!

What confused her was the fact he didn't seem too upset about being hungry. In fact, he seemed fine with not eating a thing. Hermione's brow creased as she fell silent into deep thought.

A knock came to the door, three quick raps and then a pause as the person behind the door reflected as to whether to barge right in or to wait for a reply. Draco didn't concern himself with replying so Hermione volunteered:

" Who is it?"

" Who else?" Professor McGonagall's voice sounded cheerful. She slowly pushed the door open, struggling a bit for Hermione left a stack of books up against the door when she was trying to clean the room up a bit.

Draco glanced up. His eyebrows raised slightly to see that Minerva McGonagall seemed so overjoyed about something. Professor McGonagall only grinned wider and then exclaimed:

" We have wonderful news for you, Hermione."

Hermione couldn't help but exclaim: "What is it?"

" You did incredibly well on your O.W.L. exams! They flew by with highest honors." Professor McGonagall then looked at Draco. He didn't say anything. " Do you want to know what you received?" Minerva asked.

He shrugged.

" Well, you did exemplary work, too. This year, nearly everyone passed their O.W.L.'s." Professor McGonagall's beaming face then turned downwards at the tray she held in her hands, on which a couple various dishes stood. " Breakfast, anyone?"

Hermione felt her stomach churn as she said: " I'd like to eat now."

They both turned to Draco.

" I'll eat." He said, as if he were making a major sacrifice for them by doing so.

" Well, good, then." Professor McGonagall thumped the tray down and turned to Hermione and then to Draco (both sitting as far away from one another as physically possible). Hermione stood and approached the desk in the center of the room, slumping down on the edge of her cot, which brushed by the desk. Draco did something similar at the other side of the desk.

Hermione's eyes trailed over the meal. 

Despite the off-color green beans, the breakfast looked like a dinner. There was a plate with a toast (a tiny tab of butter atop it), then there was a tall glass of white milk, and there was a bowl of green-bean soup. The aromas that filled the room were too tempting to resist.

Both of the two students dug into the meal, and Professor McGonagall smiled. " Enjoy, I'll be here around noon to bring lunch and check on you two." 

" Thank you." Hermione said.

Draco reflected for a moment before saying , softly: "Thanks."

Professor McGonagall straightened out the pillows on Hermione's cot with a bit of a serious frown, then she turned on her heels and left the room. Draco and Hermione exchanged quick glances and then they both ate quietly. 

Suddenly, Draco asked, his voice piercing the silence: " What was it about?"

" What was what about?" Hermione was taken aback that he was speaking to her.

" Your paper." Draco raised his eyebrows suspiciously. " Forgot so fast?"

She dug her fork through the dab of butter on top of the toast. Thin slits raced through the butter now. With a sigh, Hermione plowed the fork back across it so that the butter now had a tic-tac-toe checkerboard on it. " Wolverines." She said, finally. " The cases in Blackburry."

" Mmm." He stabbed his spoon through the thin blanket that grew over his cooling soup. " The ones that Grizelda Periwinkle helped solve?"

" Yes." 

" Oh. Was it… hard?"

" What do you mean by 'hard'?" She asked, finally. With a sudden onrush of bitterness, she retorted: " If you mean, was it difficult to research, then no. I found hundreds of resources, but then again, I knew all about it before I even began."

He was mildly surprised.

" If you mean whether it was strenuous to write, then yes it was. It took me days to get it to a perfected form. I had to simply revise it - - and - - then I'd have a good mark on it." Her voice faltered away. By the time she said 'mark on it', she was speaking just a faint tone above a whisper, and Draco had to tilt his head towards her to hear what she was muttering about.

" Oh." Draco repeated.

" Oh." She said, mimicking. " I suppose that apologies need to be strangled out?"

Draco propped his chin up on his palm and then smirked. " Apologize – for what? Because someone tripped me and I fell on top of you? I believe it should be I demanding the apology. Falling _on top_ of you…" He shook his head, bemused.

" It's not as if I have leprosy." Hermione smashed the butter flat with a single angry movement of her fork.

" No, that's true, you don't." His grin couldn't have been any meaner. 

Hermione knew what was coming, and she felt ill at the idea. He hissed:

" You're a Mudblood."

She couldn't help it, she reacted as she would normally do it, and so, with all her strength, she slapped him across the face.

~*~

Author's Note: Like it?

I will update Saturday or Sunday, I'm sorry I didn't update all week, but I was overwhelmed with school work. D'oh!

P.S. Review, or I will literally feel put down. 


	8. How the Snake Stings

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter and all else aforementioned in the other tedious disclaimers. I am so sorry that I didn't get this chapter up Saturday or Sunday but I just so happened to have had a problem with my internet provider and after

~* 8 *~

How the Snake Stings

Draco's hand shot up to his cheek, which had reddened greatly, and his eyes swept over Hermione, as if seeing her truly for the first time. He then looked down at his own hand, which he had pulled away from his face now. 

Hermione waited for his reaction. 

Normally, Draco would take his wand and do something annoying to the other party, like make their hair stand on end for the day, or make them freeze and fall over, hard as stone. This time, though, Draco was only equipped with his hands, and no matter what, he wouldn't just attack a girl. Clenching his fists, Draco smirked broadly.

This was possibly the biggest blow to Hermione, because she despised someone who'd brush off another person with only a smirk, not even words. She straightened up and then said, calmly but coldly, so that her voice was almost mechanical: " You think you're so big in this school, but guess what, you're not. I bet Harry would be able to outdo you in everything. That's what you're afraid of, isn't it?"

Two cold eyes pierced into Hermione's, almost in warning of the fire she was sparking behind them.

" That's **_it!_**" Hermione stood up, slapping her hands down on the table. She pointed at him and then shouted: " You can't stand the fact Harry might be better then you."

" Shut up." He said, weakly. He tried to keep his hands at his side. It was so very Muggle-like to fight with one's fists, it was almost a shame that this was all he had left. He knew that Granger wouldn't get him his wand back now, not after how she got so angry. Draco realized he'd be the one crawling into the room next door, instead of Hermione.

" No, I won't shut up." Hermione's face was flushed. " You know what? I thought that maybe you'd be all right after a while, that maybe once you actually got your brain to work outside of the little box your father made for you, then you'd be a pretty okay person, but I was wrong." She felt tears in her eyes now, which she didn't understand. This was only Draco, and it was too late to take his hand and pull him out of the Dark Side, now that he was already obviously engulfed in it. " I was wrong." She repeated, as a tear slid down her cheek.

Draco leaned back in his chair, looking down at the plate in front of him, trying not to say anything. He recalled how Lucius had always taught him that when a lowly idiot was bothering you, the cleverest way to get rid of them is to not make eye contact, like a King would never look in a servant's eye. His father's words seemed to be most of his thoughts lately, which suddenly surfaced inside of Draco now that Hermione shouted at him about the box his father made. The truth stung hard, and he failed to believe it. 

" My father's brilliant. He would never push me into anything that would do less then prosper!" Draco replied, hotly. " I don't know what 'box' you're talking about." Draco's mouth spoke words he wasn't exactly thinking. He was thinking of his father's fierce face as Lucius told him, repeatedly: " Never stoop as low as to be friends with Mudbloods. They forsake all that is true in the wizarding world." Then, in a hollow voice, Lucius would add: "There is no good or evil… it's only about who wins or loses, about power."

Draco was little then, not understanding much. The shallow voice that accompanied those words was forever seared into his mind. 

" You know what you are? Evil, and so is your father. Your family is corrupt by You-Know-Who, and you don't even see how you're doing little more then hurting yourselves!" Hermione felt the words slip from her mouth before she could reflect on who she was speaking to. Draco's eyes narrowed.

__

There was no good or evil.

" There is no evil." Draco said, finally, his voice hollow just as his father's was. " There's only power."

"No…" Hermione shook her head, her hand shooting up to her mouth in revulsion. "Brainwashed, that's what it is." She sunk into her chair, and then looked at Draco, still sitting there, beginning to eat again, calmer then when he began.

They didn't speak again. While Draco finished his meal, Hermione couldn't bring another bite to her mouth.

~*~

Hermione had gone with Professor McGonagall to the library to take out a book so that she could amuse herself for a few days in the room she shared with Draco. Professor McGonagall was skeptical about it, wondering if Hermione's distraction in the book and Draco's avid attention to his homework would eventually occupy the students so much they'd forget one another, going through the days without so much as a smile or glance to one another.

Hermione assured her that she and Draco were beginning to get along better, just to make the Professor a bit more happy with her ideas of the room, but truthfully, Hermione felt dreadfully frightened and alone now.

Now she sat with the book in her lap, opened to about thirty pages into the book, and she read to herself slowly. She couldn't quite understand what she was reading, though, and after repeating the same dull sentence in her mind a very many dull times, Hermione realized that she wasn't going to get any reading done at all. This was almost the first time that she couldn't concentrate at all on a book.

Her eyes wandered over to Draco again.

He was writing, and his facial expression was absolutely blank. This was the world of Draco Malfoy – he was either sulking, sneering, or looking otherwise completely bored (a.k.a. the blank expression).

Maybe it was the way he seemed to care less about how the things he said or did hurt Hermione, or the fact that he seemed untroubled at all with the conversation Hermione had with him earlier that day, but something about that suddenly-cool attitude of his infuriated her. 

She tried to think hard about the book she held in her hands, but her mind wandered and she was soon bored. However tense the air between her and Draco was, she knew that there was still the issue of finding a way into the room next door. Draco was propelled into the way of her discovery when his wand ended up in the mysterious room. She had little chance of backing out of working with him now, but she didn't wish to speak to him yet.

Suddenly, Draco shifted. He stood and then paced across the room. Hermione allowed her eyes to follow him, in fear that he might try something funny. Draco stopped in front of the hologram of the room next door and then slowly put his hand in. The second it was up to his wrist, a sudden POP shook the air and his hand flew back and smacked him in the chest.

" Stupid thing." A look of utter contempt crossed Draco's face.

Hermione couldn't help but prop herself up on her elbows and examine the scene with a new-found curiosity.

Draco then thrust his hand in full-force, and with his entire limb in all the way to the shoulder, his feet planted to the ground, he began to grope around through the other room. The force of the hologram was pushing him back and his feet slid slowly on the floor until he was forced to pause, walk up closer to the window, and then try again.

He seemed to find something with his hand for suddenly he stopped straining against the force of the hologram. His arm shot back out and he teetered on the backs of his heels before he raised his hand up triumphantly. A small scrap of something was wedged in between his fingers.

Hermione wished to know what the scrap was, but she could not see that far, and if she asked Draco to see it, he'd laugh in her face. Besides, she had no intention to speak to him.

Draco flipped whatever it was around in between his fingers before pushing it into his pocket.

**__**

'That idiot! He'll crumple it! Has he no respect for items like that?' Hermione's mind buzzed accusingly. Draco obviously didn't have any respect for objects such as this, for a few moments later his hand was groping through the insides of the room again. This time, his hand retreated with nothing in it, but a very startled look was prominent on his face.

He looked over at Hermione, almost ready to say what he felt inside the room, but he suddenly pressed his lips together tightly and then grinned broadly instead. The grin wasn't a friendly one, it was more of a conquering one, one that could either mark the face of the victor of a large sports match or that of one that triumphed over another person in some sort of other event.

Whatever the case was, Draco's triumphant smile didn't erase for the rest of the evening. Late into the afternoon, when Professor McGonagall came to offer dinner (which both students refused), Hermione found herself more and more curious of what Draco had discovered. She made plans to wait until nightfall, and then she decided she'd have to reach into Draco's pants pocket and pull the item out.

~*~

Somewhere outside, a few noisy insects chirped. Draco's breath was soft and steady in his sleep, a bored expression on his face even in his dreams. They had changed into their pajamas, of course, when Professor McGonagall came to get them out of the room for the late night bathroom-visit. Hermione chose to wear her baggiest, wooliest night gown, because the room was so very cold that it gave little to no hope of warmth other then that of the clothing they would choose to wear.

Hermione waited until she was absolutely sure Draco was asleep, and then she slid from her cot and approached Draco's cot.

Draco's head was turned away from her, so she felt even more relieved. She waved her hand in front of his face to see if he'd somehow burst out of his dreams (or nightmares) and then scream his head off until he realized the shape waving before his eyes was only a girl's hand.

When Draco didn't wake, Hermione kneeled down on the floor and found Draco's pants.

She felt rather dirty, looking through his clothing, but it was a necessity to keep herself informed on what was going on. She reached into the pocket and felt something cold and hard. Hermione pulled it out. It was a little round metal washer that must have fallen from some sort of mechanical item in the boy's bathroom. Hermione figured that if anything, Draco would use it to fish items from the other room by tying the washer, a magnet, and a string together and to a stick. The fishing-reel routine would obviously not work, though, for the string would be immediately pushed out of the hologram in the blink of an eye.

She dug into the other pocket and found a very stiff, over-starched handkerchief that happened to be spotless. The reason for it was beyond her, for Draco obviously maintained it in prime condition. She put it back into the depths of the pocket and then found a thin sliver of something.

Hermione pulled it out and saw it was a blade of grass.

A blade just like the thousands of shimmering blades of grass in the field of her dream. It was probably just an odd coincidence!

Hermione felt her heartbeat flutter as she pushed the blade back in. It was probably not what she thought it was, even. It might have been a discolored scrap of wallpaper that Draco scraped off. Or it wasn't the object that Draco found. It was likely that a boy would have grass in his pockets, or a rock, or some other article of nature. Yet, Draco was rather a clean-liking boy, and it was odd to see grass in his pocket.

It didn't matter, it wasn't a major breakthrough. It was too vague of a discovery.

Hermione pushed the blade of grass back into Draco's pocket and then set back on her heels with a sigh. " Hmm." She pondered, out loud.

There was little else she could attempt to do except try to get into the room again. With a frown, Hermione stood and then approached the window. She put her hands on the window sill and then peered at the hologram. It was chillingly vivid and believable.

**__**

No.
    
    She decided that it would be best to try and go in there when Draco was awake.

If something happened, he'd be there to tell Professor McGonagall what happened. Or would he say the truth? Would Professor McGonagall believe him? 

~*~

Hermione felt tired. Perhaps it was the fact she didn't eat or sleep well for a long time now. Her eyes fell open very early in the morning and now she simply attempted to sleep again but couldn't. 

Suddenly, a rattle came to the door.

Draco stirred in his sleep, and Hermione felt frightened all of a sudden. The rattling of the doorknob on the door did not cease, in fact, it got louder and more intense. Hermione pressed her eyes closed.

" Hermione, it's me."

" Harry!" Hermione said, and she ran to the door. " I thought you forgot about me."

He laughed. " Why would I do something stupid like that?"

" I don't know." Hermione felt tears in her eyes and a warm lump in her throat. " Oh, it's so horrible, Harry. Draco and I are NOT getting along. I can't stand him sometimes."

" This whole punishment thing was a bad idea." Harry said. " Are you eating okay?"

" I didn't eat anything except for the chocolate you gave me and some soup and toast."

" That's awful." Harry pressed something through the space in between the door and floor again. " I got you some more food."

" Thank you." She couldn't help it, she burst out: " Harry, I miss you so much."

" Just me?" He joked.

" No, I miss all of you, but…" She paused. " I miss you a lot more then the others."

Draco turned his head to the doorway.

Harry sighed. " Hermione, I can't even think anymore without you around." Suddenly, the sound of him standing up outside the door filled the air. "Hold on, I'll try and get through the door again with that spell… I really hope it works…"

Hermione shook her head. " Harry, you'll get hurt. I'm sure that this room is sealed from that spell, just as it is sealed from Retrieving Spells, Alohamora, Wingardium Leviosa, and many others."

" We'll see."

The sound of his wand humming was evident, a low and vibrating trill, like a piece of paper flapping over a comb as someone blows on it. Then, all of a sudden, Harry's head peeked through the door."

" It works!" Hermione cried out.

Draco sat up.

Harry went through the door so that his head and arms appeared, and his stomach, and the tips of his feet, but he was still halfway through. Suddenly, the invisibility cloak on him slipped down so that it was a mass of fabric at his ankles, as he held his arms out to Hermione. She hugged him tightly, pressing her face into his chest. " Harry, I can't believe it…" 

Draco slowly opened his eyes, trying to take in what was going on. 

Hermione laughed and said: " Come on in, all the way." She stepped back from the door.

" I shouldn't, I might not be able to get out again, since the room might be sealed from the inside." Harry said, and he was right. That was a possibility.

" Oh." Hermione tried not to look too disappointed. "Well, that's alright, then."

Draco watched as Harry suddenly brought Hermione's face up, his hand under her chin. He smiled at her and said: "Hermione, I have to tell you something."

" What is it?"

" I like you, a lot."

" I like you too." Hermione felt a load of relief slip out of her stomach. She felt his lips press onto hers very slowly, because Harry was afraid and plus he had never done something like this.

Before Hermione could get used to the feeling, though, she felt something whip by, and all of a sudden, Harry was being propelled backwards out of the room. Soon, only Harry's head remained halfway through the door.  


" Come back later, you idiot, can't a guy sleep?" Draco said, icily, and with that, he pushed Harry's head all the way back through the doorway.

~*~

A/N: Well that was a VERY long chapter compared to the others, I felt a lot of guilt from Gary Skinner on me, after all… **sorry that this came up so late! My internet server was down! **


	9. "Memories"

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter and all else aforementioned in the other tedious disclaimers. 

I apologize for how I write "Than" for "then". I guess my English isn't up to par, but I will proofread a few times before I post now just to make this story easier to read. Yep!

~* 9 *~

There was a long, painful silence, after which Hermione shouted:

  
"What did you do that for!"

Draco didn't reply, he yawned and then returned to his cot, falling asleep almost instantly. Hermione stared at his body, lying in utmost comfort on his cot, uncaring of anything. She clenched her fists angrily.

" Harry." Hermione said, and Harry replied from the hallway:

" I should go."

" Don't be mad! He - - you know how Draco is!" Hermione rolled her eyes. " Harry?"

" I should go." He repeated, this time a bit shakily. " Seems that Malfoy's jealous… you… and him… you didn't…?" Harry couldn't even say the rest of the sentence. His voice faltered away and the only sound left was an angry creak from Draco's cot. 

" No! No, Harry, please…" Hermione reached her hand under the door. She felt Harry's brush over hers and then envelope her hand. Hermione saw this as a sign to continue. " I can't stand it in here, alright? I can't sit still. I've never felt this bored in my life. Even my books don't occupy me." Hermione's eyes slid to the side to see if Draco was asleep before going on: " **_He _**seems to flick me off all the time, no matter what I do. I tried being rude back at him but it all bounces off of him, as if it didn't bother him at all. I tried being nice, too, and the only response I get is some sort of crude, profane retort."

" Who cares?" Harry asked, plainly. "It's just Malfoy."

Hermione nodded slowly. " I guess." She added: " I need to be at least mildly friendly with him in order to leave the room."

" After some time, Professor McGonagall is going to realize this isn't working, and then you're free to go." Harry reasoned.

Draco clenched at his pillow, wishing to block out the annoying buzz of Harry's voice, like a fly in his ear.

" I hope." Hermione could only say.

" Remember to eat well, okay? No matter how proud you are, eat." Harry urged her. 

" I will." Hermione felt a blush cross her cheeks. " Come back soon, okay?"

His fingertips reached under the door to caress her hand. " Not even a pack of wild griffins would chase me away, Hermi." Then, he stood and the sound of his retreating footsteps were a heartbreaking clatter for Hermione. " Bye." Harry said, simply.

" Bye and good riddance." Draco whispered into his pillow. His face felt oddly heated. 

~*~

The next morning, Hermione woke up to see Draco gone. He wasn't in his bed, and when she looked around the room quickly, her eyes still blurred with sleep, she could have easily missed him, standing silently in front of the hologram window. She blinked curiously and then asked, roughly:

" What are you doing?"

He looked at her. Perhaps the steam had escaped Hermione since she was speaking to him, however rudely it was. He shrugged in reply and then dipped his finger into the hologram. His knuckle popped as his hand was pushed back instantly.

" Are you going to go in there?" Hermione said, sarcastically. " Stay out of this, this is **_my_** secret."

Draco shook his head. " Your secret? That's my wand in there! Are you going to go get it for me?"

She shook her head, admitting the truth.

" Then this is my secret, too. I want my wand back." Draco turned back to the window. " Besides, I can fit through that window better."

" I'd like to see you try!" Hermione shouted.

" I will." He replied, smugly. He leaned forwards, and prepared to jump in.

" No! Wait!" Hermione shouted.

It was too late. Draco released himself from the ground, propelling himself with a massive lurch of his legs. His head flew through the window immediately, fluttering the hologram slightly. His hands grabbed the windowpane and pushed him in farther, and then he used his knees to bounce even farther inside. He was in, completely gone.

" You idiot…" She whispered, frightened. Where did he go?

She approached the hologram and then cocked her head to one side. " Draco?" She whispered, fearfully.

He didn't reply from inside the room.

" What's in there?" She raised her voice.

No reply.

" DRACO!" Hermione grumbled, and with an angry huff, she looked around the room to change into her clothing. She might as well crouch in the corner and change, since Draco was no longer present, in a sense. With a tingle going up her spine, she stripped off her nightgown and quickly pulled on her underclothing and shirt. She searched for her robes, and having found them, Hermione put them on as well.

Now that she was dressed more appropriately, she walked towards the window and then thought hard. Should she go after him? Perhaps he was playing a dirty trick on her. Maybe there was nothing in the other room, maybe it was a dusty old room with book shelves and nothing else.

" Draco, do you hear me?" Hermione asked, and then she reached her hand into the hologram. She felt a hand grasp hers, and she was being pulled in, full-throttle.

~*~

A warm sunlight licked at Hermione's face. She could see a bright orange light through her eyelids. Someone brushed a few escaped strands of her hair from her face. Hermione's hands shot up and she felt her forehead. She must have bumped into something, for she felt the wet glisten of blood on her forehead.

" Well, you're not dead." Draco's voice pierced her thoughts.

Hermione's eyes fluttered open to see him crouched over her, his eyes studying her face.

Hermione gasped and then slid back, pulling herself to a seated position a few feet away. " Where am I?" She gasped, looking around. They were in the middle of a massive field, the grass blades bending and shimmering in a sea of dancing green colors.

" I don't know. Do I look like some sort of atlas?" Draco hugged his knees up to his chest in a protective stance, a vestige of whatever remained of childish fright and thought inside him.

They exchanged glances. They were both equally afraid, judging from the way they both trembled.

" Do you think…" Hermione whispered. " … that we were transported into a memory?"

" A memory?" His eyebrows lowered notably until there were dark shadows playing over his eyes, with the way the sun hit the side of his head. 

" I heard that people can seal a memory of theirs inside a room, if they so choose. It's an ancient ritual, from the very first witches and wizards." Hermione explained. " A memory is formed inside someone's mind, or a couple blended memories. Past, present and even future memories can be sealed. After time, memories grow distorted…" She clutched at the bleeding spot on her head. " I doubt that Lily and James Potter would have lived in the center of a field… the memory grew old, distorted."

" We shouldn't be here." Draco whispered, fearfully. " How do we get out of here?"

" I don't know." Hermione cried out, in desperation. " I don't even see where we came **_in_** from!"

" Neither do I." Draco admitted.

" I'm scared." Hermione said.

" Same here."

She smiled at him, for the first time in a truly friendly way. Maybe Draco wasn't a completely spoiled and hollow vessel of Lord Voldemort just yet. Hermione sighed and then decided she should tell him about her dream. Draco listened with somewhat good listening skills (he interrupted her twice, after all), and after all was said, Draco exclaimed:

" You don't mean… we're going to live through fragments of Potter's parent's memories?"

" I mean just that." Hermione retorted.

" No way. I want **_out!_**" Draco hissed. He stood up and the field began to rush by them. " What the…?" 

Hermione grasped at him, trying to keep themselves from being pulled apart. Perhaps it sickened her, but they had to hold hands, because if they'd be split apart, then there'd be little hope of finding their way out alone.

Draco squeezed her hand tightly and then closed his eyes. Hermione did the same.

The feeling of hundreds of wind currents, blowing from a hundred directions at once, hit their bodies. Draco was even more frightened than before. Hermione felt him shiver as they were propelled through a memory portal. Hermione had read many books on memory rooms. They worked mysteriously, like rooms locked in time, spinning back and forth between someone's memories. They were usually activated only after the person who created the memories died. The rooms vanished when someone else invaded the memories and then lived to carry the truth of the past on.

It was a scary reality, and Hermione couldn't wait until she could leave. Draco's warm and strong hand over hers jerked back quickly, almost in disgust, and he said: " It's over." 

She looked around. They were standing in a school. Hermione looked closer and saw it was Hogwarts. Hogwarts was so beautiful! It was completely decorated with lovely flowers and banners. Draco motioned outside at a huge Quidditch match going on. 

They ran towards the Quidditch field, pushing by students.

" Hey? Who's this?" Someone asked, angrily.

Hermione felt a hand on her shoulder. Draco and she spun around and faced a tall boy with a strikingly handsome but cold face, wearing Slytherin robes. He looked from Hermione's robes (Gryffindor) to Draco's (Slytherin) and then asked: " What have we here? A Slytherin and Gryffindor. How disgusting."

Draco looked lost at words. He simply said: " You're - - you're…"

" Lucius Malfoy." The boy laughed meanly. He put his hand on Draco's hair and ruffled it painfully. " What about you, kid? What sort of idiot would be fooling around with a Gryffindor, and an ugly fat one at that?"

Hermione was appalled.

" She's not too bad." Draco's words came out without reflection. Then, he grew serious again and he replied: " I'm Draco, and if you don't mind, we have to go."

" Sure, knock yourself out, kid." Lucius laughed and nudged one of his friends beside him. " Thank goodness that we're getting out of this dump at the end of this year. How degrading – a Gryffindor and a Slytherin."

Hermione and Draco slunk away through the crowds, and they found an abandoned area beneath some high-rising bleachers. Draco's cheeks were red and he looked dazed. " My dad - - he looks just like me, doesn't he?"

Hermione didn't know what she should reply.

" He's just like me, in everything." Draco looked a bit worried. " I'm pretty annoying, I guess, huh?" He laughed bitterly. 
    
    Hermione couldn't believe what he was saying. " You're your own self."

" No, I can see **_who_** I am…" He shook his head. " We gotta get this memory to go away. How do we get through a memory?" He asked.

" We need to find the aspect of this scene that Lily or James would have taken as a memorable moment." Hermione cited, remembering the passage of a book that she read just three weeks ago. Thank goodness she was freshly aware of what was going on, for Draco was obviously lost. " Haven't you read any books on these things?"

Draco looked at her with a sad smile. " The only books I've read were ones about the Dark Arts." He was so bluntly honest that she almost cried, though she didn't know why. " We don't have much of a variety in my father's library." Draco smirked. " Well, let's go."

Hermione nodded and followed him to the center of the field. Someone was being carried out of the field with an injury. Hermione looked at the man and she exclaimed:

" It's James Potter! He looks just like Harry!"

" Oh, how sad for him." Draco replied.

She nudged him. "Hey!" 

" What? I'm being honest." Draco then broke into a run, approaching James Potter. He had a broken leg, it was obvious. James looked down at Draco and he exclaimed: " Lucius?"

" Nope." Draco shook his head. " My name's Draco."

" You look just like Malfoy." James looked down at the people carrying him out. " Hold on." They paused.

" Yeah, I get that a lot." Draco replied. " Listen, we need to know what happened."

" What? Haven't you watched the game?" James laughed. " I feel off my broom, but our team won thanks to me… that was a lucky dive I made, wasn't it?" He was asking some pudgy young man. " Eh, Longbottom?"

The young man nodded, and lost track of where his feet were moving. He tripped and James was jerked to the side.

" Where's Lily?" Hermione had just run up to Draco, for she wasn't the quick runner Draco was.

" Lily Evans, you mean?" James flushed. " She's right over there." He motioned towards the right. Hermione looked to see a slight girl sitting on the bleachers with worried eyes, looking at James as he was carried away. " Do you think she likes me? She's always afraid t o approach me."

Hermione was reminded of herself when she looked at Lily. Lily, though skinnier and shorter, was also holding a book. Small spectacles were balanced on her nose, for reading. She had lovely hair, though, and Hermione's stomach squeezed watching her. She was very pretty, that was undoubted.
    
    Lily looked up at James and their eyes met just then. James waved to her. Lily's memory was sealed, happily.
    The world spun again and Hermione grabbed Draco once more to keep from splitting apart. Where were they being taken next?

~*~

A/N: A record-breaking long chapter so far, don't you think? So, how do you like the secret of the room so far? Hmm? 


	10. The Darkness Within

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter and all else aforementioned in the other tedious disclaimers. 

Thank you for all the reviews. Now then, I want to reply to some of my reviews. 

No, I won't be adding more to "The Anniversary", at least, not for 2 or 3 weeks. Right now I have a huge biology test in the prospect and I couldn't possibly find time to add more to the story. If by chance my readers choose to read THAT story as avidly then yes, I will add to it. ***cough cough* That is a hint!**
    
    And I doubt that Hermione will return Draco's affections. 

Doubt, though, can change.

I doubt that my doubt will change.

~* 10 *~

Hermione sighed and then opened her eyes again. She felt a sharp pain blast through her forehead right away. She turned to Draco beside her, who had yanked his hand out of hers right away. He frowned. " You're bleeding."

" I know." Hermione dug into her pocket to find a napkin but couldn't find one. Draco handed her his own handkerchief. She pressed it to her forehead. " When did I hurt my forehead?" She asked him.

The time change whirled around them faster and faster, the air whooshing by with a familiar sound. There was a deep rattling echo in the distance and Draco managed to say " You bumped your head on the parapet," before the entire world seemed to freeze again. They found themselves standing in the room again, the other one in which they were serving their punishment. This room looked different though, it had two cots but in opposite ends of the room and the desk wasn't in the room, there was a small coffee table. There was a plate of cookies on the table.

Hermione heard the door rattle. " Duck!" She hissed at Draco. He did, but reluctantly.

They hid behind a stack of boxes in the room. Draco whispered: " I think that we went back to when the Potters were in here."

" I think so, too." Hermione looked puzzled. " Lily and James seemed to get along fine before, though."

The door of the room swung open and Professor McGonagall stepped in. She looked very young, in her early twenties, and she was followed by Lily and James Potter. Professor McGonagall might have looked young, but her unmistakable and very characteristic frown seemed to occupy her face anyway. Draco and Hermione exchanged knowing glances and Hermione whispered: " This is when they were put into here. But why?"

" Shh!" He said.

" Now, I will come back every day to give food, and to take you out to the bathrooms." Professor McGonagall turned around to face Lily Potter. " There will be no more arguing or fighting. Do we have an understanding?"

James Potter shook his head. " This is unnecessary."

Lily nodded.

" Miss Evans, I think we can see **_what_** was unnecessary."

Lily spoke up, finally: " Professor, I can assure you that I did not do what I'm accused of."

" What is it?" Hermione whispered softly.

James looked at her. " Then who else?"

Lily looked near tears. " I was framed by Malfoy, I'm sure of it! I'm sorry about what happened to your books, James, but…"

" You're sorry? My books are covered in tar!" James shouted.

Professor McGonagall intervened immediately, seeing as the tension rose dangerously in the room. " We are not here to play the blame game, I just want both of you to get your act together and start behaving like the seventh years you are."

" Why would I do something like this, though?" Lily demanded.

" Everyone says you've had a crush on me for ages. Everyone knows about it, Lily." James said.

Lily's ears burned red.

" Wouldn't it be a normal reaction to be angry that I went to the Yule Ball with Deborah Bones and not you?"

Lily opened her mouth, gasping for air like a fish, and she looked ready to cry. " James, you are positively, absolutely, a **_jerk!_**" She shouted, finally. " I can't believe you! Do you think that I'd stoop so low as to play childish pranks? Isn't it obvious that it must have been some Slytherins goofing off again?"

" We've discussed this before, Lily." James rubbed his temples angrily. " All the evidence points at you."

" What evidence?" Lily shuddered at the sound of her voice.

Professor McGonagall looked angry. " Now, both of you, sit down and calm yourselves. I won't have this nonsense going on, do you understand me?"

The students ignored the teacher. James ranted on:

" Your fingernails were black! Black like the tar that you must have put on my books!"

" I'd be smarter then to put it on with my hands, don't you think? I know my wand better then to rely on my hands!" Lily retorted. "My fingernails were black because I was helping Professor Wilde in the greenhouse!"

" What about the note you sent Deborah Bones? It was signed in your handwriting."

" I told you, it was forged!"

Professor McGonagall sighed. " I wish that one of you would just confess. Dumbledore is considering putting you on the Truthful Spell, until you tell the truth, Lily."

Lily seemed to die inside. Her face paled considerably and her fingers trembled as she pointed at James. " I didn't do it." She whispered. " I promise you." A tear slid down her cheek.

Hermione wanted to race up to Lily and embrace her, because Lily looked so very frail and alone all of a sudden. James crossed his arms, feeling awful about making Lily cry. James wasn't easy to give in, though – he seemed hell-bent on the idea that Lily played the pranks.

Draco suddenly took hold of Hermione's elbow, avoiding her clammy hands, for the room was being sucked into a little dark point, or so it seemed. A terrible and low whistling sound echoed in their ears, and then the sound of a very big and over-blown balloon popping. 

Hermione found herself a few minutes later waking up on the floor of their Punishment Room. She looked around and found Draco sitting on his cot, looking dumbfounded.

Hermione asked:

" Was that it? The entire memory cycle?"

" I doubt it. Maybe we stayed in there too long. I guess we have to take it piece by piece." Draco smiled happily. " Pretty neat pranks, don't you think? I never knew Potter's family had it in them, to do that sort of thing."

" Don't you get it?" Hermione cried out.

" Get what?"

" Lily didn't do it!" She shouted. " She was framed, and you might even know who it was that framed her."

Draco shook his head. " It's likely that you'd point fingers at my dad, but he had his limits, I bet. Why would he want to get Lily in so much trouble?"

" Maybe because he had a crush on her!"

Draco laughed. "That's a hoot! Why would he ever want anything to do with Potter's…"

" He didn't know she was going to be a Potter then. Maybe he saw she liked James so much and he used a perfect time to get Lily in trouble, and then have James and Lily turn against each other."

" You've got it all planned out, don't you?" Draco looked furious.

" I do."

" Well, news flash! You're wrong! That's impossible." Draco's voice cracked.

" It's possible." Hermione said, darkly. The room fell silent.

" I'm tired. I'm going to bed." Draco grimaced and then lied down on the cot, closing his eyes. He wanted to shut Hermione out for now.

~*~

The time that was spent in the secret room wasn't that lengthy. Hermione calculated that the two memories that she and Draco were transported to were the equivalent of a few minutes on the other side of the hologram window. She felt her heartbeat quicken as she imagined telling Harry all about the memories she saw – memories of his precious parents, whom he had little knowledge of. She could almost see his green eyes, like two emeralds, blazing happily as she expressed the joyous memory of James winning, and the bitter-sweet exchange of glances between him and Lily. Then, her stomach sunk as she thought of telling Harry about his parents quarreling. Of course, they weren't his parents then, so…

She paused her train of thoughts when she heard Draco coughing loudly. She looked up at him. He pointed at the door.

" Someone's here for you, **_again_**." Draco emphasized the word, trying to sound fed up with Hermione's friendly visits.

Hermione flickered her wand around and then said, softly: "Draco, how will we find your wand? It must have been propelled through time to some random memory."

He didn't seem worried.

Hermione walked to the door and then said: " I'm here."

The voice on the other side was rushed. " Hey, it's Ron, Hermione. Um, I just wanted to… uh…" He stopped, then pushed something under the door. She heard his footsteps retreat as he ran back down the hall.

Hermione's short and rounded fingernails brushed the folded sheet of paper between the base of the door and the tiles. Her fingers trembled as she unfolded the paper. She read the short few lines:

' Hey, Hermione.

Me and Harry are in Potions. Snape is soooo boring. He hummed some sort 

of spooky song while grading our tests today. I hope he doesn't quit his

day job, know what I mean??? Fred and George glued Harry to his seat during

lunch, it was an accident but Harry was really emberassed. They apologized,

but I think Harry is still upset. He keeps talking about you and how he misses you.

He's lost it up in his head, I think."

Hermione grinned as she took view of a boggle-eyed version of a cartoon Harry that Ron had sketched. This Harry looked absolutely love struck, with little hearts in his eyes, and dozens of happy hearts around him. A speech bubble escaped his mouth, where Ron wrote: "Oh, Hermione, Hermione, where art thost, Hermione?"

Hermione laughed.

" What's got YOU so worked up?" Draco grumbled. " More notes from your boyfriend?"

She stiffened. " Harry's not my boyfriend. And that was Ron at the door."

" If you didn't day dream so much, you might be able to actually hear Harry at the door next time, since if I didn't tell you today, then…" He stopped, bristling a bit. Draco realized that he had almost done a favor for Hermione. It seemed to anger him in some way since he clenched his fists and then said, bitterly: " … forget it."

Hermione looked down at her bare feet. She was sitting cross-legged on the cot now, and she was trying to piece things together. " When do you suppose we'll return to the memory room?"

" How about _never_?" 

" How can you say that? Don't you want to know what will happen next?"

" We know what happens next. They get it on, Harry comes, and boom! They're dead." He frowned.

" Why don't you want to see any more?"

" I just don't okay?" He shouted.

" Why?" She demanded.

He threw his pillow at her. " Go to sleep, will you?"

She threw it back, laughing. " No! Tell me."

Draco watched the pillow fall down short of his cot, and he smiled softly, then grew another angry frown. He didn't say anything else, obviously not knowing what to say without speaking out about how he felt. Hermione didn't have to know the truth, she didn't have to know anything. He didn't want to see Lily and James die, because he knew something about that death, something dark about his own father. Something dark in himself.

~*~

And that was chapter 10! Yahoo! It was pretty long too! I did it! Yes! 

R/R!!!!


	11. Now is Forever

Author: I own nothing but my plot! Yay, me! 

~* 11 *~

Hermione reached into her pocket early the next morning. She had changed from her pajamas when Professor McGonagall had taken her to the girl's restroom. Now there was little for Hermione to do. Her eyes wandered back and forth from Draco to the quivering hologram in the window facing the other room. 

She sighed and then yanked the object in her pocket out, fully exposing it. It stank of things more foul then a normal handkerchief would. The tiny, neat 'DM' in the corner was blurred with thick patches of blood. She felt a familiar tingle at her forehead and she knew just what - or who - ruined the crisp little sheet of cloth. 

There was little she could do about it now, but for some reason, she felt she ought to repay for Draco's handkerchief. He voluntarily gave it to her, and it would be honorable to get him a new one. She grinned as the idea struck her with its absurdity. Her blood was on Draco's things, and it wasn't through an act of violence this time, but an act of random charity.

Hermione didn't notice she had laughed softly until she heard: " What's so funny?" 

Draco was awake, or at least, he was speaking through his sleep.

" Nothing." Hermione said, immediately. 

He shrugged and then pulled the blanket over his face. He laid like that for a while, hoping to fall asleep again, then he stood up, the blanket still draped around him. " Where's McGonagall? I want to change." 

" She came earlier today. She'll be back by lunch."

" So I'll sit here dressed like this until lunch?" He asked.

" Most likely."

Hermione looked down at the handkerchief in her hands. She slowly crumpled it to hide it from Draco's view, since she was almost afraid to remind him of what he'd done. He might be angry about it for one reason or another. 

" That's absurd. Father says only Muggles would sleep until noon and then spend the rest of their day trying to decide whether they should change or not." Draco murmured. " No wizard..." 

" ... Nobody will see you." Hermione said. After a moment, she corrected herself: "Except me." 

Draco's eyes rolled past Hermione as if not seeing her. He fixed his cold, hard gaze on the door. " She better come." 

" You don't think she'd forget? Professor McGonagall says its a minor sensation in school, with people going so far as betting how long we'll last in here."

" Ages." Draco fell back onto the cot, his knees bent upwards, his back flat and straight on the sheets. " I want **_out_**." 

" It isn't too bad." Hermione said, finally. " I mean, it's in the way of everything, and it's unfair, but it isn't as bad as we thought it would be, don't you agree?"

" No, I **_don't_** agree." His eyes closed as he thought hard about something. " I'd be in class right now, gluing Neville to his seat. Instead, I'm here, practically deteriorating in a tiny little classroom, with YOU." 

" Well, I'd be in the library, working on a paper, and Ron would be pestering me, and..." Hermione grinned happily. " ... Harry would be winning another Quidditch match, and..." The change in her voice was evident as she spoke fondly of Harry. 

Draco's eyebrows raised. " You really like him, don't you?" He asked, propping his chin up with his palm, the weight of his head on his elbow. 

Hermione was caught off-guard with the question. She didn't know what to say, then finally consented his question with a small nod of her head. Then, she bit her lower lip firmly and vowed to say little of her affections for Harry. 

Draco smirked. " Harry Potter, with his messy hair and scarred face, his skinny little body and his huge black glasses, and..." He paused short of his description to say one word: "Why?" 

" Why?" She repeated. 

He nodded curtly. "That's what I said. **_Why_**?" 

" Because!"

Her hands shot up to her cheeks, and she put a hand on each one. She could feel how hot they had grown. 

" No, really. What's so exciting about him? What makes a girl like someone like him?" 

Draco looked honestly curious. 

" Well..."

He nodded to encourage her on. 

" I don't know. He has this bravery in him, this valor. It's interesting." Hermione paused. " His eyes are so green..." 

Draco's velvet blue eyes shone brighter. He looked ready to laugh. 

" They look like grass."

" Emeralds." Hermione berated him. " Don't call them grassy."

" What else?" He rested his chin on his brought up knees now. He seemed to hug himself together tighter and tighter as their conversation wore on. His body was obviously tensing. " What else is there?" 

" He's nice and kind. He can say nice things and you know he means it." Hermione gushed.

" I mean what I say." 

" You don't say nice things though!" Hermione ignored his reference to himself. 

" So then, that's all?" He asked, his smile just slightly warmer than ice. 

Hermione nodded. " Isn't that enough?" 

" But... he looks..." 

" He looks fine to me." She said, angrily.

He raised his hand in a surrender, and then said, jokingly: "Whew, sorry for asking." 

Hermione suddenly had an idea. " What kind of girls do you like?" Her eyes rested right on his, trying to keep his attention. He shook his head, and then looked down. He had very light-colored eyelashes, a faint blonde-white, and very thick, so that they formed a very intricate fan over his eyes when he looked down. She couldn't tell whether he bore a look of embarassment or one of shock due to her asking of the question. Finally, he said: "What's it to you?"

The bitter snap in his voice sent a shiver down her back. " To me?" She sat back onto her heels. " It's nothing to me. You asked about Harry. I should have the right to ask about your love life."

Draco shrugged. " I don't have any written rules about girls."

" Oh?" 

He looked up. " What? Is that bad?" 

" No, it's good... I think it means you're open." Hermione grinned. "There's books for you. I read that somewhere." 

" You read too much." Draco said.

" Well, everyone has their own idea of how much reading is too much, don't you think?" Hermione then fluffed the pillow on her cot. "Everyone must have some requirements for the opposite sex." 

" She can't be an idiot." Draco proclaimed. " And not too short, I don't want to bend over to kiss her." He laughed. Hermione did, too. Draco then cleared his throat, dignified as ever, and continued: " A Slytherin. Definitely not a Gryffindor, above all!" He looked at Hermione nervously. 

" Hmm." Her smile broadened. " You sound so nervous."

" Me?" He nearly squeaked. 

" Yep. I bet you like a Gryffindor." 

" That's... blasphemy." He muttered. 

" It's called the truth." Hermione then scoured her mind, trying to find a possible Gryffindor match for him. " I bet it's a gorgeous girl - Ginny, right?"

" Are you kidding me? The only boy she sees past her nose is Harry." Draco huffed.

" Don't you think she's pretty, though?" Hermione asked. 

" She's a Weasley." 

" Still!"

Draco nodded reluctantly. " I only like Slytherin girls. Get over it."

His fingers pulled the blanket up over his knees again, the smooth silky feel of the fabric a comforting soft through the pajamas he wore. " It's cold in here!" 

" That's only because you're still in your pajamas." 

He nodded and then asked: "What time is it?"

Hermione held up one finger in signal to wait a second. She took her wand and then swung it through the air, chanting a little spell. Four digits floated in a cloud smoke in the air. " It's ten in the morning."

" Might as well be. I can wait until noon, for McGonnagal to come down here." Draco wrapped the blanket tighter around him. He felt embarrassed, being in his pajamas in front of Hermione. He almost felt alienated, being near-bare, and her all dressed up. Usually at this time of the day, Draco would be freezing in the Slytherin Common Room, but at least he'd be dressed. 

" I forget. What day is it now?" Hermione asked. 

" Wednesday." He replied. " I think."

" I'm so bored." She mused. " I want to go back into the hologram. Please?" 

" Go alone. I don't need you squeezing the blood out of me every time the time shifts in there." Draco said.

" We need two people, since the first time we came in, there were two. If only one came in now, it would disrupt the process of the memory cycle and start over. Remember, this room exists so that the memories these two people saved could live on." 

" I remember." Draco turned away from her, trying not to see the begging in her eyes. " Oh, what the hell. I'll come along." 

" Thank you." She smiled. 

He tried not to smile back but failed. 

~*~

After Professor McGonagall came to get Draco, and once he was fully dressed in Slytherin robes, Hermione said to him: " Do you want to go in there now?"

" When else?" He pushed by her and then looked at the hologram. "I'll go first, I fit better." 

Draco then sped up and did his best to throw his body through the shimmering image and into the unknown beyond of the room. His body slipped in easily, and soon he was gone. Hermione bit her lower lip, trying to get her courage up. She wondered if Draco would pull her in again like last time, or if he'd watch her hands struggle to pull into the parallel world without help. She rested her knees on the parapet and took a deep breath. 

With a quick lurch, she let her body somersault into the hologram before the suction in the room could react. The balloon-like pop filled her ears again and before she knew it she was kneeling behind a stack of boxes with Draco at her side. He turned his head to look at her and said: "Look." He motioned over the boxes.

Hermione leaned her head out just a bit and caught sight of Lily and James, sitting next to each other and laughing while playing cards. Lily tossed her hair back over her shoulder and then said, softly: " Full house."

" Damn it, you win again." James tossed his five cards down beside her. Hermione could see an ace of spades, a jack of spades, two queens of hearts, and a two of spades. **_Tough luck._**
    
    " What do I win?" Lily asked.

He grinned at her. " Win twice more and you'll see."

Lily frowned. " Come on! This is a trick, right? You want to make it best two out of three." She began to shuffle the deck of cards again. An ace fell to the ground and a king of spades, flat as a sheet of paper, hopped from his own card and pulled the ace back up. Lily's laughter bounced off the white walls of the room.

Hermione turned to Draco and then said, in a stage whisper: " They're friends now."

Draco: " Tell me something I don't know."

Hermione felt her hands squeeze together angrily. If Draco was going to keep being so mean when he replied to her, she'd punch his lights out. 

James looked down at his cards and sighed. He plopped all five down and took five more. He looked at them and then sighed even louder. " Crap." He said, finally.

Lily flashed her cards to him. " Can you believe it? Full house."

" Plain luck." He said with a huff. " Or, you're cheating."

" Want to make it three to zip?" She teased.

" Sure. Deal the cards."

Lily tossed the cards triumphantly, then began to shuffle them again, and again. " There, now it's shuffled fair and square. You can't say I'm cheating." She handed them to him. " Here, pass them out, if you'd like. Five each."

He nodded and then passed the cards from the bottom, not the top, eyeing her suspiciously just in case. He looked through his cards and cheered: " Ha!" He thumped them down. " Beat **_this_**." Five cards fell down onto the cot. She straightened up and then said:

" Alright."

Lily placed two cards back into the deck and then took two other ones. She glanced at them grimly and proclaimed: "You win."

Draco nudged Hermione with his elbow. " Look at Potter."

Hermione saw James go rigid. His eyes fixed on Lily and he slowly leaned forwards. Lily looked up, and then asked:

" What's wrong with you?"

James smiled: " You know what you won?"

" What?" She asked.

Before Lily could react, James was kissing her passionately. She fell back on the cot, and James cupped the back of her head with his hand and then pressed her close to him. Hermione looked down at her hands, which were nervously wringing Draco's handkerchief, however dirty it was. Draco brushed his fingertips on her wrist. " Calm down."

Hermione nodded and then closed her eyes tightly, her lips growing a pale frosting-pink despite how she tried to appear calm. She didn't find it right to watch this intimate moment. Draco didn't watch it much, either, despite how he tried to appear very cool about it.

Suddenly, the whirling of the room around them proved that the time was going to change, but instead of changing, they saw flashes of various kisses between the two. Images of them hugging, kissing, touching, and even sleeping together seemed to flash back and forth so quickly that it was impossible to really distinguish what was going on in them. Draco grimaced as an image of Lily peeling her shirt off in front of James flickered vividly for a moment, a sharp and contrasting image to the dulled, lost memories in the background around them. " Well, I didn't need to see **_that_**. I'll never look at Potter the same way again."

Hermione tugged at Draco's shirt. " I'm getting dizzy."

They were floating, and the memories spun around them like a merry go round. 

" Don't barf on me." Draco warned as Hermione lurched forwards, her head bumping his chest as she watched the images spin quicker and quicker, and then suddenly, they were floating in pitch-black. With a blink, and a pop-sound, they were once again back in the 'Punishment Room'.

" That was…" 

" Stupid." Draco finished before Hermione could voice her opinions. " Completely stupid. Who cares about the Potters getting it on? That was senseless."

" They were precious memories." 

" Not so precious to me." He pretended to gag. " What kind of kid can say that they saw their classmate being created?"

" You didn't see it, Draco. It was going too fast."

" But you knew what was happening."

" Oh, grow up." Hermione stumbled to her cot and sat down. She was still dizzy. If she closed her eyes, she could still almost see the dozens of tiny memories fluttering around like a rainbow shattered into a dozen discs, each bright and flashing. 

" What did you think of what James did, though?" Draco asked, nonchalantly.

" Well… um…" Hermione blushed. " He did quite a few things – which one?"

" The way he kissed Lily out of the blue." Draco replied.

" I thought it was charming, and very romantic."

" But only if someone like James did it. If my father had done it, she'd have slapped him silly." Draco pointed out.

" That's understandable."

" I guess." Draco went to his own cot and laid down on his side, trying to quench the pain he felt in his stomach suddenly. "I'm so hungry." This was the first time he truly complained about the way he'd gone without food for a while. Hermione felt a smile tug at her lips.

" Are you ready to start eating more then lunch with me?" Hermione asked.

" I don't know. You'll slap me again." He said, pretending to be afraid.

" Maybe I won't this time." She replied.

~*~

A/N: I gotta stop here. My mind's going numb. I can't type so long! Review for all that's good in this world! 


	12. Shattered Rainbows

Who knows how this will turn out. I'm having a heck of a time just keeping the characters in character and because of that, there are changes in plot in my mind already. No changes in the pairings though… 

Two queens of hearts in one deck? D'oh! I knew I'd mess something up. Pretend it was a queen of hearts and one of diamonds or something. Since the only time I played poker or cards in general was in Poland in the seventh grade, I suppose I'm lucky enough to at least know some stuff. Thank you for pointing that out, Gary Skinner. You always read everything so carefully and never miss anything. In lots of reviews you mention tiny details and you comment on them. I am so happy about that – my stories are taken seriously! Yes!

~* 12 *~

**__**

The soft light of the candle flickered from a great distance. I could see the candle's narrow stick, standing like a little white general, and then… and then…

" The monster came out and said Boo!" Draco finished. 

" Is my scary story not working?" Hermione tried to appear cheerful as she said it, but she could see the skepticism on Draco's face. " I tried to make it somewhat frightening." Her wand, on the Lumos spell, was pointed beneath her chin, giving her face a very ghost-like glow.

" I'd give you points on the glowing-face bit, but the story drags on. The girl's dead, some guy is locked in a piano, and then there's a dozen other characters I can't keep straight in my mind." Draco sighed. " What I'm saying is, a good ghost story rarely has many elaborate characters, and usually focuses between one and five _only,_ so as to make the plot very concentrated… I guess it makes it scarier at the end."

" The story I'm telling is a bit of an adapted version of a story I read in the second year. It was a marvelous mystery and the ending truly struck fear in my…"

" Sure, for you. I bet you get spooked by the smallest things." Draco said. He stood up and then swished his hand by her face quickly. Her eyes blinked shut the second his hand sailed through the air just centimeters before her eyelashes. " See?" Draco said.

" No, I don't see." Hermione grabbed his hand, her fingers wrapping around his wrist. She held his wrist, suspended in the air, and said in a threatening voice: " That was a silly trick. It's common sense to close your eyes when something flies by your face."

" I don't do that."

" Yeah right."

" Try me."

Hermione let go of his wrist to wave her hand past his own face. Draco didn't even flinch. 

" How can you do that?" She asked. " You don't blink much, either. Your eyes will dry up and fall out like raisins."

" Girls blink more then boys do. That's what Muggle scientists proved. My dad always laughs at their experiments… they could be out curing their plagues and ailments, but instead, they're studying _blinking._ I think humanity's got that down pat."

She laughed.

Draco suddenly grew serious: " Do you really think I'm funny?"

" Well, yes." Hermione admitted. " Ron's funnier, though." She didn't sound mean when she said it, just matter-of-fact. He smiled.

" Start over. Add more gory details to your ghost story."

Hermione nodded and began again: " In the darkness… in the night… a terrible black shadow lurched in the alley behind a small little cottage. The Dark Lord was out, desperate to find innocent blood to butcher again… children's cries were his serenade, blood was the wine in his cup, and…"

" Stop!" Draco shouted, putting an end to her tale.

" What is it?" Hermione asked, then added: " Too scary for you?"

" Never mind. Let's just go to sleep." Draco was suddenly a bit jittery and nervous. He sat down on his cot and then looked around the room, despite how dark it was, and how he wouldn't be able to see anything past arm's length.

Hermione made a note inside her mind to refrain from bringing up the Dark Lord in her conversations with Draco. 

~*~

Two days passed uneventfully. Hermione and Draco ate together, mostly in silence, so as to avoid previous experiences. The third day from their last visit to the secret room, Hermione was surprised to hear a rapping on the door. It was a few days since anyone had come to visit them. Assuming it was for her, she replied: " Who is it?"

" Is Draco there?"

" Where else would I be?" Draco snapped at the door. " Go away, Pansy, I don't need any sympathy."

Hermione could see that Draco was very different from her. Hermione was very happy when her friends came to talk to her, to offer her comfort. Draco didn't like it for some reason.

" I brought you a note – from me and from Crabbe and Goyle. We miss you." Pansy continued.

Draco stood with an over-exaggerated groan and then approached the door, looking down at the space between the floor and the base of the door expectantly. When the thin slip of folded paper appeared, he pulled it into the room completely. " Thanks, Pansy." He said, finally, as the silence grew prolonged. The words fell awkwardly like dumbbells.

" Open it." She prompted.

" Well…" Draco unfolded the paper and then stared at it. His ears turned a scarlet red, and he said: " … um…"

" What do you say?" Pansy asked. " Would you make it out in time for it?"

" Shh." He shushed her. Draco turned to look at Hermione. " Take a hike for a minute, okay? Plug your ears or something."

Hermione nodded, however reluctantly, and then went to the opposite side of the room, where she put her palms up to cover her ears. To add effect, she also hummed noisily, tapping one foot on the ground in a measure of time. **_One…two…three…_**

Draco pressed closer to the door, and Hermione could see him whispering fervently. Then, Draco turned to her and motioned with his hands for her to drop her ears.

" Thanks, Draco. I'll be going, then." Pansy's knees cracked as she stood, and soon her footsteps were a faint patter in the darkened dungeon passages. The Slytherin common room was not too far from here, obviously, and neither was Snape's class. Draco and Hermione would often hear students rushing by to Potions. Once, they heard Ginny speaking reverently to two of her friends about how amazing Harry was. Draco looked at Hermione and winked that time, saying: " I'm telling you, you can start a damn fan club when you get out of here."

Hermione could feel a yawn coming and she let it out before saying testily: " Wouldn't it be about time to check on the Memory Room?"

Draco looked at his wrist, pretending to be a Muggle checking their pathetic little watches. " Nope, this is not the time."

" Why don't you want to go in there?" Hermione asked.

" I just don't."

Hermione slipped her finger down in the back of his collar at the nape of his neck. She tugged it hard back and he was seesawed from his seat on the cot. Lying on his back on the floor, Hermione towering over him like a skyscraper, he had to speak honestly, facing her, eyes locked.

He blinked, amused. " Whatever suits you, ma'am."

She grasped his sleeve and tugged him to the hologram window. " Now, you get your butt in there and we're going to finish what we began."

" **_We_**? I think I was the one who got in there first. You happened to tag along." Draco replied. " Besides, if I do go, it's because I want to, not because you told me to." His eyes said otherwise, but he was adamant about making his own decisions. A Malfoy was not one to be bossed around, despite how bossy Grangers could be.

Draco flexed his arms, cracked his knuckles noisily, and then pushed his head into the hologram, then tossed the rest of himself inside. Hermione went in after him. This time, though, as they climbed in, the room seemed to swallow them readily, and the balloon pop was barely audible. Hermione wondered to herself: _The Memory Spell will fall apart slowly as more memories are absorbed. If I could only remember how many memories could possibly be held in a single room…_

Just then, she hit something hard. She saw a flash of colors, as if the world was a kaleidoscope falling slowly into place from a million beads inside a tube. Hermione tossed her head back and then looked up into the stretch of sky that appeared. The sky was growing darker by the minute, however.

The trees were all near bare, a few hollow brown leaves rattling like maracas on the branches. The wind was picking up quickly, tossing her long hair back. She wished that she had pinned it back, for it would be in her way now. 

" Where are we?"

Draco was standing beside her.

" I don't know." Hermione looked behind them. A tall home had slowly appeared. It was the home from her dream, the tiny home in which she found a crying baby, the home that stood vividly like a true scene from her own memory. She blinked as tears filled her eyes suddenly. The wind was so bitter that it was making her cry as it blew into her eyes.

" Should we go in?"

" Wait. Look over there!" Hermione motioned to the trees. Three dark figures were trailing up the path. Each was dressed in Death Eater robes.

" We gotta hide." Draco breathed out suddenly. Before Hermione could do anything, he was pushing her into the bushes by the home. Together, they peeked between the branches and surveyed the scene hungrily. 

" Something's happening." Hermione commented. " They're going to do something awful."

" You think?" Draco asked, sarcastically.

One of the Death Eaters threw their hood back slowly. A flash of pale skin and smooth white-blonde hair and icy eyes was revealed. It was Lucius Malfoy, in the flesh, tall and frightening. He glared at the house and whispered something to the men behind him. Then, one of them moved slowly to the house.

Hermione gasped. " No. Don't tell me…"

Then, all of a sudden, there was a tear in the memory. It seemed as if the entire scene before them was ripped in half, as easily as a sheet of paper. Hermione turned two wide-open, frightened eyes to Draco. " Your father…"

Draco shook his head and then said: " No! It's wrong! This thing is messing up!"

It was messing up in some way, the memories had somehow become scattered randomly. Now there was something else appearing – a wedding scene. 

Hermione was standing in the corner of the room as James and Lily were cutting a giant cake. They passed the slices of cake around the room to the massive gathering of guests. The lovely weather outside was evident, not a cloud in the blue sky, and a bright sun peeked in through the floor-length windows, slightly covered with lacy pink curtains. The room was so grand and beautiful, and the golden chandelier hanging from the ceiling so magnificent, that Hermione nearly forgot the brief memory that popped up by error previously.

" Their wedding day!" She nearly shouted.

" Who's this?" A voice asked behind them.

Hermione spun around. A tall man with a cheerful, bright smile and dancing eyes was behind them. Those eyes gave no doubt to the identity of the person – it was Sirius Black, young and carefree. He reached his hand out to Hermione first. " May I have your names? I had no idea that the Potters had any youngsters as acquaintances."

" I'm … Jane." Hermione lied, because she knew that Sirius would not remember her face, but a name like hers would stick in his mind. She couldn't mix the future – the future that Sirius was supposed to know her in **_then._**

Then, Sirius held his hand out to Draco. Draco didn't recognize the man, and he shook his hand in a very open way. Hermione wondered if Draco would have been so easygoing in shaking Sirius's hand if Draco knew precisely who this man was. Draco gave a false name as well, catching Hermione's example: " I'm Joey."

" Jane and Joey. You sound like a born pair." Sirius laughed. " I'm Sirius Black." He looked over Draco again, a bit slower this time. "You do remind me of someone an awful lot. Do you have an older brother – Lucius?"

" No." Draco said, immediately.

" Good. Who'd want to be related to that sourball? He didn't even come to the wedding party." Sirius turned and motioned with his hand for James. " Hey, Potter, get over here."

James walked up to Sirius and then looked at Hermione and Draco. He grinned. " I think I recognize you from somewhere… however broadly…"

Hermione shook her head. " I don't think so. We must have walked into the wrong banquet hall - - we're here for a baby shower." Hermione was quick with spinning yarns if she had to. She turned to Draco. " Isn't that right, Joey?"

" Uh, sure." Draco allowed for a faint smile. " A … baby shower."

They stumbled backwards and burst out the door and into the hallway. They stood there for a minute. " Why are we still here? Shouldn't the memory be over now?" Draco complained.

" I don't know." Hermione replied in a low voice. " Maybe we haven't seen the part that made this a memorable memory."

" Let's just look from the hallway, then. I don't need to have a crowd around us wherever we appear." Draco poked his head into the doorway. " Okay, they're cutting the cake… at least, Potter's mom is."

Hermione pushed him aside to see for herself. " Why can't you just call him Harry, not _Potter_?"

" I don't know, _Granger_." 

Hermione felt her blood boil. **_Jerk._**
    
    Then, Lily and James finished passing the cake out. They kissed in front of the room. It was going in fast motion now. The people spun around the room quickly, and within minutes, it was empty of guests and some restaurant workers were cleaning it up. Hermione could see Lily and James slowly walking out. They caught bits of the conversation:

" How are you feeling?" This was James.

Lily put her hand on her stomach. " It isn't showing yet, but…"

" Just think, in a few months, we'll be a real family." James looked ready to cry.

" What a sap." Draco whispered very quietly to Hermione. They were trying their hardest to cower in the dark hallway without having the Potter couple notice them.

Then, it was all over, and before Hermione could notice, she and Draco were lying on the floor of the Punishment room, side-by-side, in a very awkward pose. She jumped to her feet since someone was just pounding on the door.

" What is going on in there? Miss Granger? Mister Malfoy?" 

" You can come in, Professor McGonagall." Hermione said. Her face was red and she was panting slightly, still worked up from the Memory Room.

Professor McGonagall walked into the room and tried to smile widely, but was taken aback with Hermione's disheveled hair and red face, and how both the students were panting loudly, their clothing rumpled. " Well! I can assume you aren't throwing daggers at each other any more?"

" We were arguing again, and I guess I threw a pillow at him, so he threw one at me." Hermione whispered to hide the truth. She couldn't allow Professor McGonagall assume anything otherwise.

" I thought things were going just fine! I was even considering letting both of you go soon."

Draco glared at Hermione.

Hermione persisted to argue that they were fighting, since she knew that it was better to have the Professor know that they were enemies then to assume that they were becoming, well, _close_. " I'm sorry." She mouthed to Draco, when Professor McGonagall left, leaving their dinner (in hope that they'd eat together).

Draco shook his head. " It's fine… I'd like to be out of here, but I can see your point." He said. " At least, a little." She didn't know why, but she had a crazy idea that he was hurt by how she was repulsed at having Professor McGonagall believe that they liked each other.

" You're not mad, right?"

" Are you kidding me? Why would I be mad?" Draco burst out.

" You are mad. Why?"

" I'm not." Draco began to put some food on his plate from the tray Professor McGonagall brought him. 

Hermione could see that the topic was closed and she chose, wisely, not to bother him any longer.

~*~

A/N: Well, I will update more often now . . . since I have spring break for the next 10 days! Wouldn't you people love to have a chapter every 2 days or so? Or would you like to have me update less often? 
    
    Oh, and I am currently working on chapter 7 of "The Anniversary" by me, to all the readers that read the story so far! :-)… keep remiding me in the reviews and it will be up in 1 week.
    P.S. Longest chapter yet! 3,000 words! Yay!
    P.P.S. I am so sorry about the errors in layout… the way the font just changes… I dunno what's going on… 


	13. Hearing is Believing, Seeing is the true...

Author's Note: Actually, I don't **_have_** a Beta Reader. Nobody ever offered to be mine! * sob * that is why I make so many mistakes! Woe is me, oh, woe is me…

Draco knew of his dad's involvement, but you don't think he'd admit it to Hermione, right? I mean, they're friends now a bit, but… he just wouldn't say that. 

Also other replies to reviews: Draco didn't point his wand at Hermione, but his HAND. Maybe I wrote it wrong but it was supposed to be hand, not wand. Sorry! :-( oops!

Oh, hey, chapter 13… unlucky number… I'll probably mess up more then ever. ^_^;;

Sorry that there hasn't been any action in the last few chapters, I just needed to get it all worked up to this chapter… and then It'll almost be the end… so yeah, :-) … I'm almost done!

~* 13 *~

Very early the next morning, even before the sun came up, Hermione sat curled up on her cot. She could feel tears slowly sliding down her cheeks and then falling to her bare feet. She could feel a smile coming up as she thought: **_If I keep it up, I won't need to take a bath._**

She tried to ignore how sorry she felt inside – sorry for whatever it was that had pushed Draco's buttons. He slept like a log, of course, but his uneasy breath gave wind of the turmoil still simmering inside of him. He barely spoke to her for the rest of the day, and he did little but nod her way instead of saying goodnight. He had always said goodnight, and when she asked him about it a few days ago, he justified it with a lame excuse about how his father taught him to always greet or dismiss everyone with courteousness, despite who they were or the circumstances.

Her eyes closed and she could almost feel a dropping in her stomach, a whirlwind feeling that hurt no matter how she tried to forget about it. Hermione tried to piece together what made Draco blow. He seemed to have denied his father's part in the death of the Potters. He was obviously not one to admit this easily.

He was also upset that Hermione didn't want anyone to possibly think that she and Draco were anything but sort-of-friends. Draco was always a bit frazzled by nature, but this was almost an overload of negative vibes, even for a Malfoy. 

She knew that the next time they go into the memory room, it would be the last time. It would be the Potter's death – and the survival of Harry. Hermione didn't know if she'd be able to watch aimlessly as this went on in the memory. She was afraid she'd try to lunge forwards and save the Potters.

The crisp feeling of the bed sheets rubbing on her legs brought Hermione back to the world. She blinked and felt another tear slip from her eye. It was all too real, the memories were too personal. It was too terrible.

Trying to keep from crying any harder, she pressed her face into the pillow and decided to sleep.

~*~

That same day, they prepared to go the last time into the memory room. It would be the last memory, and therefore the most painful. Hermione could feel a numbness inside of herself as Draco and she both propelled themselves into the portal between the Punishment Room and the Memory Room. This being the last time in the room, Hermione felt there was a certain thing to be said.

The house that appeared before them appeared to be cut out of a magazine - old and Victorian, with tiny, tightly drawn drapes covering each and every window; obviously casting a looming darkness inside.

More so, the house seemed to be misplaced on the wide barren field, the grains whispering as the wind rubbed them against one another, the tall trees creating long, frightening shadows on its walls. There was a symphony in the air, the soft rattle of drying, colorful leaves and the low whispering of the wind as it slithered through every nook and cranny. The massive oak doors that led into the home had a single large knocker in front - the other appeared to have been broken off. The knocker was ancient, a rusty iron owl with a heavy ring running through its lifeless beak. Dead, still air broke away yet again as a gust of wind tugged at their clothing, hoping to blow them off course, like the ragged tumbleweeds that sometimes rolled by.

" The Potter's home?" Hermione asked, aloud.

" Let's get it over with. Going back and forth got a bit boring." Draco tried to hide his fear with a snide

remark.

She went up to the iron knocker, taking the heavy ring into her hand and pulling it up - the sound was as shrill as a cat getting skinned - and then, she tugged outwards. Unlike most doors leading into homes, these opened up to the outside, and not inside (more like screen doors would). " It was open." She said, almost fearfully. 

" So? Get on with it." Draco pushed her inside, roughly, and then walked in himself. 

They found themselves in a darkened hallway, the only light being that of a lone white candle burning in the distance on a small bedside table. It was set up at the end of the hallway. A Muggle phone was atop it - an old one, with a little circle with holes in it.

Hermione knew that the 'caller' was to put his finger in a hole and turn the circle to the right number, but she herself had never used a phone like this. Their footsteps made soft but clattering echoes as they approached the end of the hallway. The doors on either side of them were closed shut except the one at the end of the hall - a long, pale stretch of light escaped from it, creating a faint amount of light on the wood-tiled floor.

They slowed their pace to accommodate the fact that they could, quite plainly, be heard by the family in the home. She turned to him and whispered, just barely audibly: " Do we go in?"

" Why not?" He whispered back, almost too anxiously, revealing his tension. A low grumble was heard outside and he recoiled slightly.

" Are you scared?" Hermione asked, not meanly, just matter-of-factly.

" Possibly." He replied.

She hesitated before taking his hand in a sign of comfort. Slowly, she pulled him into the room that emitted the light. At first, their eyes had to adjust to the lighting, then they realized nobody was in the room. A merry fire crackled in an old, marble-lined fireplace. A pair of fuzzy pink slippers were warming in front of the hearth, and not so far off was a glass coffee table, reflecting the lights of the fire. On top of it were a few magazines - one was Quidditch Weekly, the rest were cooking and home magazines – and there was a newspaper. The heading blared loudly: "Rise of You-Know-Who inevitable". Hermione picked the paper up, trying not to rustle. She scanned through it and reflected on the long list of dead witches and wizards that were killed.

Draco looked away and examined the wall of photographs - all in frames - each waving or smiling or just standing still. Dozens of cheery faces sprung out from them, and most radiant of all were the Potters holding a small baby... Harry. Draco avoided looking at their joyous smiles and fixed his gaze at Harry instead. Harry, with a scarless face, just a happy fat baby with big green eyes that were dewy and shinier then gemstones.

There was movement upstairs and a low laughter was heard. James Potter was saying: " Can you say 'Dada'?"

" Gabhhh..." The baby gurgled.

" Dada." James repeated, speaking slower now. " Da.... da."

Lily was laughing. " He's just a baby, James, leave him be."

Hermione put the newspaper down with an extra tenderness, as if it were possible for the newspaper to crumble to age-old yellow dust in her hands. She thought to herself: James read this**_... James is going to die, and I can't do anything about it..._**

" This was a bad idea." Draco said, finally. "Seeing their memories, I mean."

Hermione replied: " I just feel guilty... I wish we could do something, but altering a memory - - it would change everything, our existence, the wizard world, dozens of events..."

Draco bit his lower lip. " I didn't say I wanted to do anything about it. Let them die. See if I care."

He plopped himself down on the leather couch and waited for the inevitable arrival of Voldemort. Harry Potter was destined to be an orphan, despite how many times Hermione would dream of this memory afterwards. Hermione stared blankly at the old clock hanging over the fireplace with a glazed look in her eyes, trying to make out through the dimming light what the time was. It was late in the evening, which was certain.

A sudden gust of wind rattled the loose shingles on the roof, which happened to be so old and weather-beaten that it was almost surprising that the entire home didn't suddenly sag forwards and collapse. The creaking of a metal hinge scraping back and forth in the wind was evident.

" We forgot to close the gate." Lily murmured. " I had groceries in my hand, and you were carrying Harry..."

James straightened up. " I'll do it." Footsteps thundered down the steps as James Potter made his way into the family room. Hermione felt all the hair on her neck stand up on end as she realized that they were going to be caught.

" Hide!" Draco hissed at her, his eyes blazing in the firelight. She was frozen in place like a deer blinded by the headlights of a car. " Gods, aren't you slow?" He leaned forwards and yanked her by the elbow behind the satin-like curtains in the room.

Hermione let out a wavering breath and turned to look at Draco beside her. The royal purple curtains wrapped around them both so awkwardly that she wanted to laugh all of a sudden.

He lifted his finger up to his lips to shush her, but laughter danced behind the coldness in his eyes.

James stepped into the room and then looked at the dying flames in the fireplace. He shook his head in exasperation and then left the room. The living room was a mess! He stopped at the front doors and swung them open only to find a tall, dark figure in the doorway.

James narrowed his eyes and then exclaimed: " Luciu--?"

Draco's body tightened and the Adam's Apple in his throat bobbed suddenly as he swallowed nervously. Hermione looked at him questioningly.

Lucius Malfoy slammed James back against the wall of the hallway. He smiled in a vile way and said: " Today you'll see what happens to weaklings like you - - sputtering in fear around the name of evil, recoiling from the dark arts."

" What are you talking about?" James managed to say.

Lucius simply stepped back out the doorway. A dark, maroon-colored glow filled the room, as if an evil spirit was present. Then, there he was, Voldemort himself.

James stumbled backwards and shouted: " Lily! Lily - run! It's HIM!"

Shuffling was heard upstairs as the house fell into uproar. James tried to scramble backwards, finally managing to get up, only to fall down to his knees, ready to plead for his life. Yet, James was a hero, not a coward, and as Voldemort prepared to relish in the young man's sniveling, he was instead faced with a wand.

James's hands shook as he tried to whisper one of the Unforgivable Curses. "Av - - Avada Ked..." It was too late.

Sharp like a knife, sudden and painful, Voldemort's wand whipped upwards and he said, quickly: " Avada Kedavra!"

Hermione swallowed a scream and watched James's lifeless body fall to the floor.

She looked back at Draco. He suddenly looked sickened and green. He could hear his father saying: " Lily's upstairs. I want to–"

Voldemort spent little time caring what Lucius wanted to say. " She dies too." He said, his voice raspy and dry. Lucius could only nod in fear. His striking resemblance to Draco at the moment – both white-faced in fear, their bright, icy-blue eyes wide as saucers – sparked shock in Hermione's eyes.

Draco watched Lucius stare at James's dead body with relish. He didn't seem to mind the fact that a boy he knew so well growing up, his worst rival, had just dropped dead. He turned hollow eyes at the curtain behind which Draco and Hermione hid.

Draco suddenly brought his hand up to his mouth. Hermione could see he had never seen anyone die before. Perhaps in his heart he supported Voldemort, and he had grown immune to stories about people dying. It did not hurt him. But now – seeing it happen – he was on the brink of revulsion. Vomit rose to his lips, readying himself to throw up.

He turned to Hermione, his eyes suddenly seeing the horror, not just hearing it, brief tales of terror that rang fear in breasts but did not give pictures in the mind. Just as he finally saw what it was, the truth behind it, the smiling face of the victims as they fell to a horrible death – their impact on dozens of lives afterwards – it all sent a current through him. Seeing it was different from hearing it. Hearing made him believe in it. Seeing it made him want to vomit now.

" I'll do something to change it."

" The memory?"

" Yes."

~*~*~*~*

A/N: There! I did it! Another chapter! Draco sees the effects, not just hears them - - it really does change stuff…. Believe me… personal experience… no, I do not like Voldemort! Lol. Nothing to do with that creep. 


	14. Memories 1

**__**

Author's Note: I have written about 5000 words for the new chapter of "The Anniversary", only to have it brutally erased by what I call my "stupid, stupid, stupid computer". Feel free to send hate mail to this "stupid, stupid, stupid computer", but I have already cursed it to hell and back. I am so disappointed! I was going to post it today, along with this chapter – which I thankfully saved in my email and only lost the last few paragraphs, on which I worked for an hour or so yesterday. I don't think I'll be able to have the patience to create another chapter for "Anniversary" - - it broke me in two when I realized it was gone from my p.c. – perhaps another sunny day will bring me re-inspiration though. SIGH! … please visit my web page for my fan art - - there is a lot of it! 

**_www.geocities.com/littlemaggie01/_**

**__**

By the way! My readers are pressuring me into making this Hermione/Draco - - and the readers are pitted about 9 to 1, in average, as to the pairing… uh-oh… shall I give in to peer pressure or follow my own dreams? Hmm…

Chapter 14

~ A Conclusion? ~

Draco jerked out from behind the curtains, his eyes running across the room. Voldemort was long gone, taking the shortcut and making himself disappear and reappear on the upper floor. Lily, despite any efforts, would never be able to get out of the house in time.

" Draco, are you crazy?" Hermione shouted after him. 

He turned around, suddenly seeing how absurd this was. He had acted irrationally, even absurdly. No matter, he'll have to control himself and simply watch the massacre in the Potter's house… right?

" If you try to stop Voldemort, you'll only end up killing yourself, too. Think of the damage you'll do to the future! Even if you manage to save Lily for some odd reason, you will be wiped out of existence!" Hermione said, slightly out of breath, and out of patience as well, beneath her flushed face and rosy cheeks. " There will never be a Draco Malfoy!"

" What do you care?" He blurted out, savagely. " Then you wouldn't be in the punishment room in the first place. Admit it, you wouldn't really care."

Hermione was taken aback by the blunt statements he made. Perhaps she wouldn't truly be affected. Her eyes danced in wonder at how he seemed to be going through a flush of emotions, a warped Sydney Carton battling between saving Charles Darnay, the husband of the woman Sydney loved, or simply watching Charles' execution [_Tale of Two Cities_, Charles Dickens]. She said, finally: " Of course I'd care. You're not all that you seem, sometimes."

He scoffed and shook his head. " I'm everything I seem." His voice trailed off. " I was carried away. I'm not doing anything."

Hermione could hear low shuffling on the floor. She turned, and saw that James was moving. "Could it be?" She whispered.

Draco grabbed her hand and pushed her behind the couch with him to observe from a safer stance. Avada Kedavra was a hard curse to master, and at this time Voldemort, though practiced in the Dark Arts, was only merely growing yet in his excessive, destructive power. It was possible, in the confusion at the Potter's home, that his Avada Kedavra spell, and James's spell, had both cancelled one another out in some way, only stunning James for a while. Hermione's mind processed the chances of something like that happening – about one in a million, she decided.

" Lily! Hide Harry! Do something! I'll hold him off!" James was shouting now, running up the stairway. Lucius Malfoy, whom had turned and walked down the steps of the home, ready to abandon the horrors that were to his back, turned in surprise.

James exchanged a brief, hateful glance with Lucius. " Why?" He breathed. " Why Lily and Harry? Why not just me?"

Lucius opened his mouth to reply, his eyes showing no compassion, just a flicker of bitterness. " I only cared for having you dead. The Dark Lord knows what is best, though. If I had taken Lily in for a night, it would have been it, to satisfy myself, but nothing more."

" Bastard." James hissed.

" Give up. Run, James. You can't do anything. You can still run." Lucius sneered. " If you can get past me." He stood in the doorway, face twisted in a menacing leer. Lucius, overpowered with Darkness, his mind only a vessel now to host the evil that Voldemort spread…

" Don't bother. I'm not a coward." James said, then added: " Like you."

Lucius shook his head. " What would make me the coward and you brave?"

" You chose the Dark Side, of course, and that is the coward's side. You're afraid of - - of _him_ - - admit it! Your fear made you mad." James turned and ran up the stairs, not wanting to waste another breath on Lucius.

" James!" Lily shrieked.

" Lily!" He replied, and added: " Hang on! Don't let him in the room! Do a Barrier Spell!"

" I can't - - I'm holding Harry!" Lily cried.

James was at the top of the stairs. A low grumbling noise filled the air as Voldemort spoke, finally, his voice a shrill rasp, something that sounded like: " You are foolish to resist me."

Draco paled and watched his father take a step forwards to grab James, then seemed to grow calm as Lucius turned and left the house instead, afraid of any evidence on James that Lucius' wand killed him. Any incriminating evidence would be bad on a crime scene, after all.

Hermione and Draco exchanged glances. Hermione whispered: " Do you want to go up… up _there_?"

Draco bit his tongue to keep his voice from wavering, then replied: " Why shouldn't I want to see _him_ up close?" He had a defiant look in him.

" Your hero." Hermione felt herself utter. Draco's eyes narrowed.

They spoke no more amongst one another, though, and instead worked together like a team to slink their way up the stairs. They worked in a sort of mutual understanding, and they were so silent as they did it they took form of an image of cat burglars. Hermione knelt down at the very top of the stairs and moved her head to see the hallway leading to little Harry's room. James was drawing his wand, his eyes wide and frightened. Voldemort hissed and then said, eerily: " Open the room!"

" No!" James shook his head. " Do you think I'm _stupid_?" James readied his wand, his voice a slow tremble as he continued resolutely: " Leave this house. We've done nothing against you and your evil ways."

Voldemort chuckled, but it sounded more like a dry cough of a suffocating beast. " Evil does not exist. Evil is only an exaggeration. There is only power – higher power and lower power. It is the result, not the means, that count." His grayish, bony hand held out the wand he held, so alike to Harry Potter's, and with a low murmur, he began to say a spell.

James was quick, he cast a Reflect Spell on himself – a spell no longer in use these days, for it was known to wreck considerable damage if it was cast wrong. A yellowish cloud of smoke wrapped around James ever-so-tightly and then squeezed around him, and when Voldemort's wand released a torrent of energy at James – a sign of a powerful spell – the yellow cloud seemed to swallow the spell up.

A frightening silence filled the air, and then the cloud spat the spell back. It seemed to be absorbed into Voldemort's body, as if he were immune to it. James was horrified. Was Voldemort truly so powerful that even Voldemort's _own_ Dark Arts couldn't kill him?

" Who sent you? Who helped you?" Lily begged from the room, unknowing of Lucius leering on their house steps downstairs. Peter Pettigrew trembled silently a distance off, not watching the house but not walking away, his eyes sliding from one figure to another. 

Voldemort turned and grabbed James before James could give away the true identities of the people. James could only murmur: "Lily, hide, it's _serious_—!" Then, Voldemort's fingers dug tighter into James' neck, holding him frozen in one place, his face gaining a bloody red color as air flow was cut off from him. James tried to cough but ended up only gasping for air. " Lily…" He breathed out.

The wand that Voldemort bared was pointed at the crown of James's head, executioner-spell style. Voldemort whispered: " Say goodbye." Then, without another second, he shouted: "Avada Kedavra! Die for once, you scum!"

James seemed to convulse, his eyes blinking open rapidly, his mouth falling open as Voldemort's fingers let him go. Voldemort's long, thin fingers must have snapped something inside James's neck, whether it was his wind pipe or something else, for blood rushed from his open mouth in a rusty current. The Avada Kedavra spell worked nicely, though, for James was dead already, at least not feeling the torturous pain and humiliation of watching himself bleed to death on the floor before the bedroom where his wife and child awaited their death.

Voldemort then proceeded to cast a few spells to destroy any evidence that James was strangled, and the blood and bruises were quickly gone. He seemed to sense more presence in the hallway just then, for he turned to look down the hallway, his breath low and rasping.

Lily whispered: "James?"

Hermione's heart broke at the sound.

" James!" Lily cried as she got no reply.

The veins in Draco's neck seemed to tighten angrily, almost flexing and pushing out. Hermione watched him slowly turn his face away from the sight in the hallway. Voldemort was moving slowly towards the staircase again, then he stopped and decidedly swung at the bedroom door.

" No!" Lily shouted, pressing her back to it. " Encantinis Blocadus…" She chanted, pressing her knuckles at her chest, James in one hand, her wand slipping from her fingers. The door achieved an odd glow. It would withhold any spell or intrusion for a few minutes for her to gain her bearings.

Voldemort rasped: " There is no escaping!"

Hermione whispered: " I didn't know there was such a struggle…"

Draco didn't reply. His pale face had paled even more, until it was a ghostly, ashen color.

" Leave, please leave!" Lily bawled, holding Harry closer to her breast. " Or at least take me. Don't hurt Harry. Please."

Draco's fists tightened on Hermione's hand. He'd been involuntarily squeezing it for a while now. Below the Darkness inside of him, below the layers of scorn and hate and anger that piled up on top of one another in him, Draco had an odd humane side that was aching and scratching with blood-encrusted nails to escape. He closed his eyes, trying to reflect upon his father's words. _There is no evil. There is no evil. It is all power. It is the result, not the means. _The words mirrored Voldemort's as he killed the Potters.

Hermione turned to Draco and said, slowly: " I don't know about you, but I'm convinced. I'm going to do something."

Draco didn't reply.

" Do you know any Dark Arts spells? Any at all! Give me a five-minute course on the Avada Kedavra…" She stammered, her hands shaking.

Draco shook his head. " I… I don't know it yet… well. My Father told me that any respectable, powerful wizard couldn't carry himself without knowing it. We do not need to practice it - - openly." The last word was added in a tone of secrecy. " You can't, Granger, you can't learn it in minutes."

Hermione looked panicked. " Please! Or are you afraid… because you support it?"

Draco didn't know how to answer that, for deep inside of himself, there was a tumultuous sea of conflict at the moment. His supposedly 'dead' feelings, his dormant sense of reality, had slowly been awakened over the course of time. Being locked away in the room with Hermione had left him vulnerable. There was nobody in the Punishment Room to follow, no rules to cower behind, no father's eyes to watch him, none of his father's words to dictate to him, and no weekly letters to him from Lucius, denouncing all and poisoning the leftover good in Draco. With nobody to impress and nobody to listen to, something inside of Draco had begun to disintegrate. 

Hermione bit her lower lip angrily. " I should have known what the Malfoys would stay faithful to, despite all. I suppose McGonagall was right. You are a vessel of the Dark Lord, nothing more, nothing less. Back there in the living room, I thought… I thought…" A tear slid down her cheek. Whatever had opened in her heart to Draco had just slammed shut, smashing his fingers along the way. She stood, and said, hatefully: " I'm going to do something, whether you like it or not. If I am erased from the face of history, then so be it."

~*~

Author's Note:

Chapter fifteen, coming soon! Bwa ha ha ha! Will Draco do something? What is to become of Hermione and all that exists of her? Will Lily be spared? What about Voldemort… will Harry ever be famous and have his scar? Would this incident still, in a way, make him the 'boy who lived'? Would changing the past lock Draco and Hermione in that time period forever? Or would they be shuttled back to the future to see what life was like with the changes? Or - - or - - will nothing be changed? Will they both perish? What? WHAT? WHAT????

Review… for more… he he he…


	15. Epiphanus (scena Quarta)

Chapter 15

__

Epiphanus

Scena Quarta

"Coward," Hermione finally said to him. Then, Hermione sprang out into the corridor without another thought. Draco's hand lifted weakly in a last reflex of restraint, but he knew it was no use. Voldemort could already see her.

Hermione's eyes thinned into slits as she whispered hoarsely: " Stop!" A trickle of sweat ran down the side of her face, sliding into the crease where her mouth pulled back in a frown. She watched the dark-cloaked figure at the other end of the upper-stairs hallway turn to face her, his red eyes glaring distastefully. 

" Who's there?" Lily whispered, panicked. " James...?"The heartbreaking hope in her voice prompted Hermione further. 

Hermione lifted her wand, her mind flashing back to the beginning of the year. There was a new course being offered, an Advanced Defense Against the Dark Arts class, which was only for the wisest, most mature students. The spells Hermione learned in there were simple to cast but oftentimes deadly, paralyzing the victim of the spell. They were mostly spells that were taught to students like Hermione only to keep any 'accidents' (like Neville in the whole) from 'accidentally' putting them to use. 

She thought hard of the spell that caused momentary paralysis. It would give her enough time to gather her thoughts together. Her mind was racing madly and she didn't know what to do next. One wrong choice could change everything that Harry had known in his life, after all. One wrong choice could also make an end to the Boy Who Lived as well as to save him.

" Petrificus Stupor!" Hermione shouted, her eyes widening as she said this. She needed to have precise aim for the paralysis would strike only the part her wand directly pointed towards. A sudden shot of light escaped the tip of the wand and then pulsated in the air, creating the effect similar to the way air looked over a fire - as if everything was slowly moving, sliding, a world that was turning to an inevitable liquid. 

Draco pushed back from the hallway. 

**__**

She's an idiot! he thought, angrily. **_Thank the stars I can control myself better then that. Jumping right in front of the Dark Lord. Great thinking_**. He bit his lower lip in worry. "Don't hurt yourself, okay?" His mind buzzed the thought out without his consent. It just slowly moved from his brain. He looked up and saw Hermione looking at him, briefly. He must have spoken aloud. 

Hermione's eyes didn't linger on him for long. She shook her head and then turned her glance back at Voldemort to see if the spell had worked. Voldemort had turned to face her and his strength appeared overpowering. Instead of being affected, he absorbed the dark power and a strange aura seemed to circle him. The air in the hallway grew hot and heavy, taking a reddish tint. 

It infused Hermione's hair and she looked wild, almost lost - a hypnotized doll. She sank to her knees, her lungs squeezing tight. She coughed loudly. The air was horribly tight in the hallway and his eyes seemed to bore right through her, to read all her weaknesses. Draco hugged his knees to his chest. This was not happening, really. Shouldn't he and Hermione just warp themselves back into the real world still, or was it too late? If they changed the memory as profoundly as they already might have done, it could be essentially impossible to return in time. If they survive this, they might be locked in this time. Harry would be a baby. They would be heroes - but how could they even exist? Their parents were probably already expecting them, or they were already born into this world -babies as well. It was overwhelming to think about it. 

Where would they fit in, then? Would they just be erased and start over from little babies, and live in a world changed from the one before? Hermione gasped for air. The air was choking her. " Stop it!" She coughed out. "Stop it..." 

Her wand fell from her hand and she groped blindly in the hallway for it. The red, cloudy atmosphere in the hallway was like a gray cloud of ash after a volcano. Draco leaned to take a peak into the hallway, but he saw nothing but Hermione, coughing horribly and trying to find her wand, which was only about a foot away. Yet, she couldn't find it. She looked like a blind puppy, lost and helpless. He didn't understand it. What had happened to the strong, powerful Hermione, the jump-out-and-face-Voldemort Hermione? Draco glanced at Voldemort at the end of the hallway. The Dark Lord seemed satisfied with his effect on Hermione.

She was eventually going to cough up bits of her lungs because the air in the hallway was suspended in a red, dark atmosphere. Voldemort must have grown so powerful that he could absorb the dark art spells. Is it possible? Hermione coughed harder. Tears streamed from her eyes and down her face. She found her wand and shouted another spell. This one, upon striking the target, could even kill it.

The more powerful the opponent, the lesser the effect. Hermione suspected it would stun Voldemort for long enough to make the red atmosphere in the hallway to break away. Draco watched as Hermione continued to fight him. He was baffled. Why would anyone resist him this much when they could avoid such a fate by joining with him? Hermione watched in anguish as her spell fell short of even creasing Voldemort's robes. Voldemort laughed shrilly and then turned his concerns to Lily and Harry in the bedroom, kicking James's body aside. Lily asked, again: 

" Who's there? Who is it?" 

Hermione shouted: " Mrs. Potter, escape through the window! Run!" Draco was stupefied. He whispered to Hermione: " What are you doing! If you're going to change the future around like that, then you're going to erase me from the future as well!" He looked at her, finally, but saw she didn't even hear him. She had fainted, her body still convulsing, gasping for air. 

It was a natural reaction to loss of oxygen - the body feels that the body isn't taking oxygen in and it assumes the human is willingly not breathing. Therefore, the brain causes the body to pass out in order to stop the willing blockage of air from the lungs. Yet, Hermione would have been more then eager to breathe again. Draco felt a sudden tightening inside of himself and he leaned out into the hallway again. Voldemort was now trying to get into the room with Lily and Harry Potter inside. He grasped Hermione, pulling her towards him.

Her head rolled lifelessly onto his chest as he held her up.

**__**

Holy Merlin's Wand, what do I do? Draco wondered. **_She'd know how to get out of the past… come on, think, Malfoy…_**

He looked down at her paled face. By removing her from the hallway, he'd saved her, in a sense. She took a breath, but was still unconscious. " You're so stupid!" He hissed at her. " Going out there at the Dark Lord. Hadn't your stupid books taught you anything?" Draco felt a sudden anger for no reason at all. " Stupid! What am I supposed to do without you?"

The words struck him oddly to his ears. **_Silly… I don't need her. That just came out of nowhere._**

Draco moved silently down the hallway, trying to think hard as to what to do next. The stairs squeaked quietly as he slowly backed downwards, pausing to lift and set Hermione down step at a time. He wasn't sure why he was doing this, except he knew he should back away before he changed the past any farther.

" Little girl?" Lily shouted. " Are you alright?"

Draco looked at Hermione again. Hermione wasn't alright. In fact, she seemed to still have trouble breathing, and each breath seemed to be a terrific task. He shifted her and then pushed her hair back from her face. He thought hard. Hadn't Hermione mentioned something once about simply waiting the memory out? Once the memory climax passes, they could leave. Draco pressed his forehead against the wall of the stairs and waited for Lily's screams. 

**__**

Coward.

He felt the word rise up in him. Through his light-colored eyelashes he could see Hermione in his arms, her head tilted backwards slightly, her dark hair spilling across his arms. This felt so strange to him, but he didn't know what else to do. She was completely unconscious, he was in his worst enemy's home listening to his mother get killed by his idol, and in his arms he was cradling a girl he was brought up to despise, for the way she was a Mudblood and for how she wasn't a Slytherin. Draco paused in his train of thoughts. Did he hate her? Or did the lines blur along the way?

**__**

Shut up, he ordered his mind, **_shut up. _**

He saw that Hermione was waking up. He quickly moved her from his arms now that she was less likely to roll down the stairs and attract the attention of the Dark Lord. Draco realized Hermione was right about a few things – he was afraid of You-Know-Who. Was that why the Malfoys were to attracted to him in the first place, because they feared his wrath?

" Is… is it over? Did he…?" Hermione asked, before looking around wildly. " You didn't…?"

" You fainted." He said, simply. 

" He was trying to choke me!"

" Serves you right. What sort of a fool would just jump out into a hallway to be face-to-face with the Dark Lord?" He asked angrily.

" What? Are you afraid for my life?" She whispered hotly.

" No - - just - - well - - it's stupid. It's not that I care, but it's stupid." Draco didn't know what else to say. His ears burned hot and he looked away. " Just get me out of here."

" We're going to have to sit through this, listening to Lily get killed. Unless, of course, you'll help me out." Her eyes caught a devilish gleam.

" Enough of helping you out! I won't have anything to do with this! Do you really think we're even going to change anything? We're only going to interfere with everything. We might even get killed. Do you know how much confusion that would make? We could even rewrite history as we know it." Draco sighed. " I'm staying here, and I think it'd be best if you stayed here too."

" What if _he _comes after us again?" Hermione questioned. " Once he's done with Lily?"

" Don't you get it? If he kills Lily, the memory is over. You don't think she'd remember anything after her death, do you?" Draco asked.

Hermione's cheeks reddened. " Don't you feel we should do anything?" She had tears in her eyes.

" I just think it'd be best if we leave everything as it was." Draco admitted. He looked down at his hands and then tightened them into fists. He slowly unclenched them, then tightened them again. 

Hermione released a few tears and they slid down her cheek. 

" Stop crying." He said, finally.

" I just feel so terrible." Hermione whispered.

" You didn't do anything wrong." He replied. " You were just trying to…" Draco didn't finish the sentence for she was interrupting him:

" I'm sorry. I shouldn't have called you a coward, I guess, since you had perfectly good reasons not to… we could have really messed things up." Another tear slid down her cheek. " I'm sorry."

Draco shook his head. **_What if I was a coward? Don't apologize to me._** "Don't." He took hold of her shoulders, holding her squarely in front of him, their eyes locked. " Don't cry. He'll hear us."

" It's just that he was so evil and horrible, and Lily and James and Harry were so innocent and - - and - -" She let out a low sob. A loud crash was heard in the hallway as Voldemort broke in through the doorway and attacked Lily and Harry. Lily screamed: "Don't! Take me! Don't hurt my baby!" She was sobbing heavily.

**__**

There is no evil, after all, nor is there a good. There is just a power struggle. The ends justify the means. You'll see… you'll see… The charade of words that his father implanted into his mind from birth rattled through Draco's mind like a sweet lullaby, blinding his eyes from the tears that Hermione wept, shutting out the sobs of innocent women and children from his ears, and shielding him from being a live witness to the horrors. As long as he was a vessel to carry out the Dark Lord's doing, it would be all right. As long as his young mind remained forever poisoned with those words, it would be all right. **_There is no evil, after all._**

Hermione's head hung forwards, her forehead pressing down onto his chin. The feeling broke him out of his sudden trance. He could feel her hands grasping his wrists tightly. " I want to go back… please let it stop…"

Lily's sudden scream echoed through the air, and a blinding light filled the air. Lily's sacrifice for Harry – a mother's love for a son. It was all going to be over soon.

He could feel Hermione's every breath and shudder. She was afraid but he didn't know what advice to offer. **_This isn't evil._** It sounded empty and hollow, an old excuse created to keep the worker bees out and about of the hive while the Queen Bee did her own wishes. **_Just stop crying!_** He couldn't stand it, he wanted to stop her from crying, and he felt so horribly sorry for her. She was so disillusioned, taking it all so deeply to heart, when her own resistance of the Dark Lord would only fuel his power more and eventually swallow everything up. But then… wasn't it people's _support_ that fed the Dark Lord with fuel, keeping him alive, like a candle alit in hearts? Wasn't it the fear that people would willingly bring him back that kept his evil haunting houses?

Suddenly, he felt numb. 

It would never end. The Dark Lord would take everything up, absorb it the way he absorbed the Dark Spells Hermione cast on him, building up stronger and stronger, until with one mighty sweep he would knock the world down like a row of toy soldiers. It wasn't the droning, mechanic voices of thousands that supported the Dark Lord that would keep people safe. It was resistance and Hermione's constantly fragile heart that put up the strongest wall against the Dark Lord. They were truly protected from him, they would never be his empty vessel-servants. With these people around, he would never take the world over. Draco's father was vulnerable, ready to do his every bidding, and could be easily discarded. When Lucius told Draco it was safest in the panther's nest, it was all a lie. It was safest away from it, he could see.

Hermione wouldn't stop crying.

The numbness in Draco subsided to a wave of sorrow. He didn't believe in epiphanies. **_I won't be good. I'm not evil either. There never are such boundaries on this world._** He tried, weakly, to explain to his mind what was going on. It was a desperate last trial to see if his views were unchanged. Yet, for some reason, the words still held little meaning.

Hermione looked up, sensing something was wrong. For the first time in a long time, she could see a different emotion in Draco's eyes other then a self-centered hate or pity. His eyes were glossy with what might have been tears, or perhaps he had come out of a long train of thoughts.

" What's wrong?" She whispered. 

He didn't answer. Instead, he embraced her close, feeling both cold and warmth running through his body. She didn't really struggle, tired mentally and physically. Hermione's eyes snapped shut in instinct though and she was afraid of what was coming. Draco slowly found her lips after kissing her upper cheek below the left eye. 

It was strange, Hermione realized, that when she kissed Harry it felt warm, fuzzy, and familiar. Draco felt different – dangerous, frightening, yet so passionate that it was wild in a sense. Draco's kiss was exciting; Harry's was familiar and simple. She didn't know what was happening as the time slowly began to change and the world around them seemed to smudge apart, and she didn't know whether she'd like it.

*

Author's Note: I swear I have no idea what I was thinking as I wrote this. I just **_love_** epiphanies. I think Draco was due for one. Out of Character? I don't know, you tell me. Would it be possible, in a sense, in these surroundings? What do you think? 

P.S. I think there are about 2 or 3 chapters left… just basically Hermione, Draco, and Harry figuring some things out. And I wonder – who would Hermione choose? To be honest, I don't even know myself. About halfway through last week, as I was about mid-way through this chapter, I realized how much I like Draco! (sigh). Yet, I don't know… Harry/Hermione is practically tattooed into my arm – I excel at these fics. Oh well, if this turns out against someone's liking, I promise I have plenty other H/Hr fics and a few D/Hr fics in plan. NEVER Draco/Harry though. Don't even ASK me about that. *Frownie face* 

P.P.S. Scena Quarta or Scene Four because Draco actually goes through four phases in this fic. Spot them if you'd like. Too tired to explain. 


	16. Memories 2

Author's Note: I would like to tell everyone that I am still not sure what the pairing will be. Yet, I know how Hermione is. Kindred spirit or not... 
    
    Chapter 16

The punishment room came into view from the blurry smudge it had been before. The desk in the center of the room proved to be an obstacle again and they were both hurled out onto it. The hologram image in the background wavered and then grew still. Hermione pulled apart from Draco, her hair a scraggly mess. 

" What... what do you think you're doing?" She asked, finally.

" I - -" He began, then stopped. 

" What is it?" She looked behind her, to the place his eyes had quickly averted. 

The door was wide open and Professor McGonagall stood in the center of the room, holding a platter of food in her arms. Her mouth fell open and the platter of food fell to the floor. A sugar bowl cracked in two and one half rolled towards Hermione's feet, trailing sugar. She made a motion to pick it up but Professor McGonagall said, roughly: "Don 't bother." 

" We..." Draco began, then lifted his hand, ready to show his wand and blame himself if he had to, saying that he charmed the window. Suddenly, he realized he didn't have his wand. He completely forgot about retrieving it from the room. His cheeks flushed and he looked down again, still on his knees beside the desk.

" I can see that something quite against regulations of your punishment has been happening here. Perhaps beyond the boundaries which I set." Professor McGonagall frowned deeper, long creases appearing across her forehead. "Come with me, please." 

Hermione glanced at Draco and tucked her hair behind her ears. Her mind was still whirling over what he had just done. Did he truly kiss her or was it all just her imagination? Maybe he simply bumped heads with her... she tried to reason with herself about it. She was more shocked then pleased about it. What would Harry say? 

*

Minerva McGonagall flailed open the doors to the dining hall. Faces of students that Hermione hadn't seen in days flashed before her eyes. Everyone grew deathly silent and still. Dumbledore rose from his seat at the head of the room and then exclaimed: " Minerva, what seems to be the problem?" 

Professor McGonagall's face was red and angry, despite how much she tried to hold her disappointment back. " The punishment we have set for our two quarrelsome students seemed a trifle to them, for they sought more excitement. They've put some sort of charm on the room, and have been escaping it."

" No, Professor, it isn't like that!" Hermione cried out. 

" Hush!" McGonagall hissed, exasperated. " I tried to make things fair for you, I even accepted the fact you might not be ready to dine together. Yet, you deliberately turned your back on my rules. I thought we had an agreement that..." 

" What wonderful wizardry!" Dumbledore's voice broke through the silence in the room. The Slytherin table buzzed slightly and then a cheer rose: "Go Draco!" 

Draco's body tensed and he smiled mischievously. If he had his wand, he could have put up some distraction, perhaps a little fireworks display over his head for laughs. Instead, he drawled coldly: " Won't you just listen to her?" He motioned at Hermione. 

McGonagall spun around to face him. 

Dumbledore continued: " To be able to escape a room so sealed and charmed like that one is a task worthy of the powers of even the greatest of wizards. I'm not sure if you, yourself, Minerva, would have managed the fancy spell-work that these students have accomplished, together. And you can tell they worked together - doesn't that show that they put their disagreements behind them?" 

Minerva's eyes softened. " Is this true?" She demanded of Hermione. 

Hermione nodded curtly. " We did work together on this, but we weren't the ones who charmed the room."

Professor McGonagall rolled her eyes. " Who, then, child? Why, nobody's been in that room for seventeen years, and..." Something changed in her face, as if a shadowy veil had fallen over it.

" James and Lily Potter charmed the room before we came in there. They made a Memory Capsule out of the adjoining classroom." Hermione spoke clearly. " I don't see why I am the only one being interrogated. Won't you take Draco's word as the truth?" 

Minerva was taken aback. " Well, Mr. Malfoy, then, please add to Hermione's words." 

Draco nodded. Then, he began to explain everything, from the beginning. 

*

Hermione sighed and then left the dining hall, feeling that she had done all that could be done. Her tired eyes closed and she leaned against the hallway wall, her body shivering slightly. She was tired and her stomach ached in hunger. Her eyes opened to glance around the hallway. She was sure she was alone. With an exasperated groan, she slid down the wall with her back pressed to it and sat with her knees curled up towards her chest, her chin balanced on her knees. Her mouth quivered and she felt a tear break from her eye and slowly drop into the crevice in the corner of her mouth. The salty taste was a break to reality for her and she wiped the tear away. She felt accursed because she had the affection of two men at once, both complete opposites.

There truly was little alike in either of them, which made it so hard to choose. Together they would have formed the perfect man, but apart they were two extremes, and she was realizing that with each waking hour, she was growing more and more torn between them. Just as the relationship wit h Harry took years to develop, the relationship with Draco took a few intense days. Just as how Harry rushed nothing and remained a gentleman, always a shoulder to cry on, Draco was passionate and impulsive, acting upon his whim and instinct. Her stomach churned painfully and she mouthed the words to herself: " What do I do?" 

Her eyes snapped open for she felt a presence just then, and the first thing she saw was a tall figure towering over her. She fixed her eyes upon the face - a face that looked as if it had died a thousand times since that morning. The two green eyes that once blazed with a merry glow now had a dulled, barely-sheen sparkle to them, and the coal-black hair that gently framed the healthily-tanned face was tousled and disarranged even more then it naturally was, barely parting to reveal the jagged scar across the forehead. 

" You choose him, then, don't you?" He asked, softly. Not a single thread of malice or fury tinged his voice. Instead, it was a voice drained of emotion. 

Hermione shook her head furiously. " I don't choose him." Her voice cracked. " I didn't choose anyone, Harry." 

" It sure seems like you did." He leaned on the wall beside her, his eyes staring vacantly at the sign across from them - '**Quidditch Match Tonight - Hufflepuff vs. Slytherin'**. He searched for an answer between the poorly-painted letters. 

" Harry..." She began, desperately. 

She stopped, for he made a curt waving motion with his hand, as if to dismiss her words. " Why, Hermione? Why him? I'd understand if you'd have taken Ron, or Seamus, or even Neville - - but him!" 

" Harry, listen to me!" She said, sharply. He stopped speaking and listened. " Draco didn't ask to be in a relationship with me in any way. He just acted impulsively, the way he always does, the way he always dances around things in life. You know me - do you honestly think I'd just accept his kiss? You and I both mutually agreed to kiss, a few days ago, but he just did it. He didn't care how I'd react."

" Would that make you like it more, though?" He asked, bluntly.

She shook her head. " I don't know... you are both complete opposites, Harry. It's really hard to choose because I like a different thing in each of you. You share so little..." 

" I just want the truth. I don't want to be led on anymore, alright?" His eyes flashed painfully as he faced Hermione. " It's really your choice and I can't hold you down. I just want a yes or a no answer. Me or him sort of answer." 

Hermione sighed. She felt the familiar burning, squeezing pain in her stomach. She thought hard. She would feel horrible if she just simply dropped Draco like a hot potato. Then again, it wasn't fair to Harry at all to choose someone out of pity, someone whom she only truly knew for a few days, someone that was taught his entire life to hate 'Mudbloods', someone that had wavering shadow withy connections to the Dark Lord. Harry, meanwhile, was the opposite force, as always - strong protector against Voldemort, a brave light cast over Hermione, someone she knew so long they could finish each other's sentences. 

She dropped her head down and whispered: " Harry, I don't know what to do. I... I know I like you more. I can feel it inside of me, but that's because I knew you much longer. We're best friends. Sometimes friendship and love is blended... and I do love you... I just don't know in which way." Her lower lip trembled. " We're way too young to decide these things. I just need time. About half a year ago, I didn't even worry about any of this." 

Harry nodded. He reached out and took her hand, briefly, to feel the familiar warmth. Her hand was cold, though. He sighed and dropped it. Harry admitted to her: "I guess you're right. It's too early to decide these things. It just frustrated me so much... I don't know if you'd understand. I just... I hated **HIM** for so long." 

Hermione was trembling. " I'm sorry." She whispered. " I just... I can't decide. I don't even know what love is anymore."

Harry reached out and hugged her. His arms held her tightly, and then released her. He looked into her eyes and smiled. " How about the Yule Ball? Any plans on a date?" His hopeful eyes shimmered in the faint streams of light that wafted into the room from the tall, glass windows. 

She shook her head. " I think it'd be best if I don't go. It would save me the worry." 

He nodded in understanding. Harry seemed to reflect a while before asking: "Why didn't you tell me about the... the memory room?" He looked upset. " Did you just want it to be a secret between you and Draco?" 

Hermione's blush intensified so that it infused the natural tan pigments in her skin, making her skin radiate. Harry felt his heart shudder. He couldn't imagine his worst enemy feeling the same way for her - Draco probably barely even knew her. Why did the rouge always win favor over the gentleman? " No, it wasn't supposed to be a secret." Hermione replied, honestly. " I haven't had the chance to tell you. In the past few days, everyone stopped visiting me - not you, not Ron, and not Ginny." 

" Snape wouldn't let us stop by on the way to class. He had us take the other hallway - the one that's so dark." Harry grimaced. "And it smells like mold, too." 

Hermione laughed. 

" Tell me more about it." Harry pleaded. " I want to know about my parents - how were they? What was my mother like?" 

A pain filled Hermione's stomach again, and she asked him: " Are you sure you want to know?" 

" My mom and dad - - they - - they..." Momentarily, he couldn't continue. Then, he simply said: " ... They probably wanted whoever kept their memories to share them with the world."

Hermione nodded. " Lucius wanted James dead. I think he was the one who somehow led everyone else by invisible strings behind the ... the... that night." She couldn't tell him straight out - the night his parents died to save him. 

" Why?" He asked

" Lucius loved your mother - in a way that he despised your father for it." Hermione said, simply. 

Harry frowned. 

Hermione shook her head. " I - - It feels like the same thing is happening. You are James, I am Lily, and Draco is Lucius. And we're just little pawns in a reenactment of a horrible play, one that will never end." 

Harry's astonished face showed truly how he felt about the news - both frightened and slightly confused.

" It's best to learn from the past to avoid what will happen in the future." Hermione quoted. " There's some more book knowledge for you." Her hand reached out and she held his willingly this time. " I think that it's best not to just grab life by the horns, but to wait to see what comes." 

*

It was cold and dark in the Slytherin common room. Perhaps it was the overflow of the use of green and silver to decorate the drab surroundings, or perhaps it was because the common room was indeed sunk into the darkest, most slimy and cold pits of Hogwarts. Whatever the attempted mood and atmosphere was meant to be was now simply a dull, faded depression. Huddled in a patchwork quilt with the Slytherin coat-of-arms stitched into it, Draco pressed his forehead against the window of the room. He was sitting in the little cove created by the window, for it faced out slightly, making it half a octagon in shape, and the base of it was a soft fuzzy carpet - gray in color, which made up in drabness for the soft warmth of its texture. 

Draco's fingers curled and tugged upwards on the rug, then released it. It hit the hardwood base beneath it with a hollow thwap. Outside, snow sprinkled - rather early in the fall. England was a land of precipitation, and if it wasn't raining or snowing, something else was blocking out the sun - like a flock of seagulls. His bitter smile reflected in the window. 

__

How amusing, this sudden twist of events in his life. His punishment was so handily cancelled because he was caught with **_HER_**, escaping the clutch of the Potter's memory. It was almost unbearable - he was locked in a room with his enemy's girlfriend, forced to watch his enemy's parent's memories, and then to watch them die as his father watched enviously at the shadow of his enemy's mother. It was simply so ironical that he could only laugh. Of course **_SHE_** would choose her knight, whom spent his years trailing behind her, always best friends. 

__

The great Boy Who Lived, the one that people would always marvel at. 

His eyes flashed painfully as he felt a sudden wave of humility cross him. It was too much - to be bested by Harry once again, as it always was. Harry was too good to accept Draco's friendship, though he offered it a few times near the beginning of first year. Then he wondered why Draco, his Malfoy pride hurt, would tease and torture Harry for the next four years. Now it was fifth year, and Draco was tired. Though he had pulled a few pranks on the Gryffindor three - Ron, Harry, and Hermione - he no longer felt so enthusiastic about it. 

It was a joke gone stale, an egg blown up in his face. Perhaps it was the fact that the whole reason for the fight was because Harry refused his friendship - and obviously, Draco's taunts would not make Harry want a friendship again. 

Draco sighed. When something changed in his life, it would change always and forever, a mark that burned in his skin like the Dark Mark in his upper arm - a trace of his father's wrath over him. Draco lowered the shoulder of his robe and then parted aside the collar of his shirt to glimpse the faded dark burn in his arm. It still stung with a familiarity of the day his father introduced him to certain aspects of the Malfoy family's life. Touching the mark on his arm, he wondered if perhaps his life was planned at birth for him already, and whether he was foolish to try and change things. 

__

Was the punishment truly effective enough?

****

No. Looking around the Slytherin common room, and through the window across the stretch of the common grounds, he saw through the next window Harry and Hermione hugging in the hallway. Fair enough. His thoughts woke up an anger inside of him that he had never known before.

__

This room is my true punishment. 

I hate **him**.

*

Author's note: Almost the ending... 


	17. A Challenge

Author's Note: *mutters incoherently* don't own, so don't ask. 

~*~ 

Chapter 17 

~*~
    
    Hermione's hands twisted on the note in her hands, almost shredding it in worry. Her mouth formed the words in the letter as she unwrapped the folded paper and read again: "Meet me in the Library after bed time is called". 

Draco's tight, controlled handwriting gave no hint to what emotions he would exhibit on her in their meeting. She dropped the note into her bag and then tuned into Professor Flitwick's sermon-like lesson at the front of the room. Being in trouble with Professor McGonagall was no reason to miss class, after all. 

*

He paced the darkened interior of the Library. The cold stone steps echoed his footsteps. He had worn dress shoes, despite the fact you couldn't exactly see them beneath the long Slytherin robes. He wore them nearly always. It echoed something his father told him long ago - something about being an elegant man. His mind didn't really recall the exact words at the moment. There was a dark crimson curtain thrown over a small cart of books just nearby and his eyes examined it as well as the few books that peeked out from beneath it. 

There were extra copies of 'Hogwarts, A History' among other things. His fingers skimmed the parched leather of their spines when he heard the door creaking open very slowly. A sliver of light was thrown across the library floor, ending just before his feet. He turned very slowly and then took a closer look at the figure in the doorway, illuminated in a near-black shadow for the light was thrown up from behind it. The door fell open a bit wider, the figure stumbled in, and then the door slowly closed behind it. In the darkness, he approached it. 

" I didn't think you'd come." He said, at last, to test the darkness and to see if it was the right person, after all. 

" I didn't think **_you'd_** come." Hermione's voice replied, barely audible.

A low humming sound filled the room, and then a dry cough.

" Filch on his rounds." Draco whispered hoarsely, trying not to laugh. 

Filch's footsteps rattled softly outside of the Library doors. They heard a hand slowly brush over the wood of the door and then a murmur: " What is it, Mrs. Norris? Any obnoxious children around here?" The cat to which the words were directed to meowed angrily. " No?" Filch's footsteps then retreated, probably heading to the dining hall - another common place for midnight endeavors between young witches and wizards. Hermione's eyes flashed in the darkness as they met with the cool light ones of the boy beside hers. 

" What did you want?" She was shivering and Draco could see, in the faint moonlight, that she was only in a nightdress, and her bare ankles were visible beneath the lace of the hem. Over her dress, she had only the Gryffindor robes, but not the characteristic scarf - red and autumn gold, like fall leaves. Draco himself had worn if it would be odd that he wore his robes and now was lightly relieved that she had worn hers as well. 

" I... I wanted to talk to you. In privacy." He'd have died of embarrassment to talk with Hermione during mealtime, inviting her over to the Slytherin table, or sitting with the Gryffindors. He winced at the very idea. 

" What about?" She leaned backwards against a table, hoping to situate herself in a chair if the conversation proved to be a long, serious one. 

Draco's fingers ached as he squeezed his hands into fists, taught with nervousness. Then, he slowly unclenched them and began: " I - - I just want to know something." His voice rose as he said: "So!..." Then, continuing: " ... Your boyfriend is - - Harry?" He attempted a voice unshaken with worry, but his attempt was a poor one. 

She knew that's the way the conversation would go, then! Hermione simply just knew that would be the results of the uncomfortable introduction. Her eyes wandered from his own to the door of the library, delaying the reply by pretending to be on the lookout for Filch. Finally, she said: " He was my boyfriend throughout the entire 

time I was in the Punishment Room. We were friends since when we first met, almost." He nodded curtly. "That's fine then. That's all I wanted to know." She saw heartbreak in his eyes. No matter which way she turned her feelings, she would be hurting someone. 

" I shouldn't be surprised, I mean..." His voice cracked, trailing higher as he was obviously fighting back an onslaught of emotional reactions. " ... He's perfect, isn't he? You said so yourself. He's good and brave and kind and perfect." He turned away now. Draco's light-colored hair reflected moonlight in every single strand so that a zigzag pattern of light appeared on the higher points of his head, where his hair somewhat curled inwards. His hair wasn't entirely straight, it might even have been wavy if not for his typical straight-combed, slicked-back hairstyle. Over the course of the day it had grown disarrayed, now it lay limply and loosely on his head. The ends of his hair strands actually slightly ended a centimeter beneath his earlobes, with single strands sprinkling his forehead. He looked angelic, with pale skin and very light eyes and hair, dressed in shimmering silver and green. 

" Draco, please don't take offense, I only…"

" I wouldn't take offense, now, would I? Why would I care about _you?_" Draco snapped, angrily. He still wouldn't face her. His body was turned completely away from her in utter disrespect.

She bit her lower lip angrily. " Because I care about _you,_ alright?" This came out so suddenly. 

He was shocked. " You… sure you do." He added the last bit in sarcasm. " Well, that's all. I should get back to the Slytherin room. What a nice chat this was. Let's meet for tea sometime." He spoke quickly, not masking his sarcasm and cynicism at all. 

" Draco!" She shouted, then immediately pressed her lips together. Hermione couldn't attract Filch to the room because of her shouting.

His back was still turned to her, waiting for the moment she'd just walk away. Hermione sighed. " Alright, I'll go." She began to walk away, then stopped and faked her footsteps, making them get lighter and softer each time as she walked in place. Then, she pointed her wand at the door and let it screech open and shut.

Draco, assuming she was gone, slowly paced to a table and lowered himself down to sit at it, then he put his head down on his hands. Hermione thought he slept, for his back rose up and down rather steadily at first. Then, the breathing seemed irregular and a low sound escaped him much different from the breath of a sleeping fifteen-year-old boy. He was crying softly.

She hid behind a book cart and observed.

Draco's fingers unwound from their tight fists and he slowly raised his eyes, shimmering with tears in the moonlight. He spoke softly to himself: " You idiot. As if she'd care." He bit his lower lip and then gave a weak imitation of Hermione's voice, adding an exaggerated whiny pitch: " I simply _adore_ Harry! He's _perfect!_"

He glanced at the moon that peeked through the drawn curtains in the Library. He added, as an afterthought: " I'm an idiot. I love my enemy. I've betrayed my father in my heart. What do I do?"

He grabbed his head in worry, his fingers tangling though his feathery blonde hair. He sighed, then stood, ready to head back to the Slytherin common room. Hermione watched him leave the Library and then went to the seat at which Draco wept. She looked at the table. Glowing in the moonlight, she could make out the shapes of his empty tears.

*

Very early the next morning, a single figure moved outside of the Hogwarts grounds. A steady drizzle fell about. The figure stood on the Quidditch field and then mounted a broom, practicing for an upcoming game. He stopped halfway to wipe the water from his glasses, then he continued again. Harry would often ride when he felt puzzled.

" Of course Hermione loves **me,** why wouldn't she? The only reason she's being cautious is because she doesn't want to hurt Malfoy's feelings." Harry, distracted with his thoughts, had to veer his broom left just seconds before he would have impacted with a tree.

There was an anger inside of him that he had never felt before, and anger that raged as if it were a sea of fire. For once in his life, Harry was becoming the second fiddle in something, and he wasn't about to believe it. He steered the broom madly towards the left, swerving across the tops of bushes and brambles. They rocked and stroked his legs beneath him as the air blew them out of their autumn sleep. Harry then tilted the broom upwards and then dove down, just barely missing the ground before he took a wild turn around a Quidditch goal post, and then through the hoop on top. He stopped, finally, perched over the top of the hoop, his eyes scanning the school grounds like a hawk hungry for prey, a hawk that just had its eggs torn apart by scavenger birds. 

Indeed, Harry didn't know whether the approaching figure was friend or foe. Someone was moving quickly towards him in the bleak morning light. There was no hint to the gender of the figure, or which house they belonged to, for a gigantic brown robe was thrown over them. Harry, looking at the robe, realized just how frosty it was, and he immediately wished he was wise enough to bring himself some cover as well. 

The figure grew larger as it approached even nearer to him. He didn't know at first whether the person was approaching him or the Quidditch field, but once he caught sight of the broom peeking from beneath the curtain of robes, he figured it was the field the person wanted to make use of. 

Ruling out the fact it was someone for him, he assumed it was someone from another house, most likely a male, for there were fewer females on the Quidditch teams then males. The person stood across from Harry now, about twenty meters away, and of course below. " Oh."

A very familiar voice drawled in disgust at the sight of Harry. Harry couldn't really connect the voice to a face or a name yet, though, for only a single syllable was spoken - he was sure it was a boy though. The boy turned away and then moved a few yards back. 

Then, he readied himself and slowly rose upwards on his broom. He was good, but Harry realized he was better at flying. Besides, the boy looked incredibly tensed up, almost as if he was overly stiff and worried about something. It reflected in the wobbly way he flew his broom. 

" So, what house are you from?" Harry asked. 

The boy didn't reply, only gave way to a very disgruntled grunt. Harry recognized the dismissive sound effect better then the voice instead and immediately exclaimed, a bit angrily: " Malfoy!" 

" Yes, Potter, you amuse me with how slow you are." He spun around the hoop opposite the one Harry was on and then perched on its top as well. He was facing Harry directly. Then, he swooped down and glided carefully along the ground. He paused once he neared Harry's goalpost, then he slowly turned and headed backwards to avoid approaching the other too closely. 

" What are you doing here?" Harry questioned. 

" I always practice in the morning." Draco replied. 

This was true and Harry knew it. Yet, he felt angry at Draco for invading his solitude on the Quidditch field. Harry felt a sudden rush of color to his cheeks and he said, finally, unable to hold it back: " Who do you think you are, stealing my girl?" 

Something changed in Draco, for suddenly he threw his hood back. His face was carved in stone - a perfect picture of anger and defiance. " Steal your girl? Why would I do that? Pansy is prettier." 

Harry spat back: " And you insult her to my face while you're at it! What's your reason for trying to take her, anyway? Are you just tired of the fact I'm better then you at things?" 

Suddenly, Draco stopped flying at all. His eyes widened and his black pupils dilated like a cat's when a cat is threatened. He stared at Harry, and said, slowly: " Don't even...!" 

Harry didn't get the hint, for he continued: " Do you just want to take her because I have her? That must be the reason. You have a basketful of Slytherin girls. You know as well as I that Hermione isn't even your type! She's not even ... pure blood, something you can't live without!" 

Draco's face was growing darker and at the same time colder. A certain ruthlessness was appearing, a ruthlessness that showed he would do anything at this point to defend his family's honor if it was pushed any farther. " Enough!" He hissed. 

" No! You know it's the truth!" Harry exploded. He couldn't stand it anymore – he couldn't stand Draco's arrogance, his I-have-to-have-everything-or-nothing tone.

" That's it!" Draco shouted. " I challenge you to a fight!"

" With what? You don't even have your wand, Malfoy, in case you haven't noticed!" Harry shouted back.

" We'll just have to improvise." Draco replied, rolling up his sleeves to reveal his balled-up fists. " No wands."

Harry had never fought this way before, and he felt a sudden shock. Draco was taller then him, this was sure. He had never really noted how physically strong Draco was, but he was ready for the worst, judging the expression on Draco's face. 

Perhaps it was honor, or the hormones and adrenaline that were flowing through his veins, but Harry nodded and said: " I accept your challenge, then, Malfoy."

~*~

Author's Note: ***GASP* **So, who wins? And… the loser… in what state… mentally and physically… will they be upon the loss? Will the fight be broken up, mayhaps? And who will Hermione choose?

~*~

Review for more… I like reviews :-)


	18. Harbinger of Peace

****

Chapter 18

Harbinger of Peace

Harry slowly moved off of his broom, letting it fall to the ground tenderly as he did so. His broom was too expensive to be damaged in a fight. He turned back to Draco after a while and said: " Are you sure about this?"

" What? You want to go make a coffin?" Draco shouted.

" No! Why don't you bring your _own _coffin!" 

Draco smirked and then stepped forwards, his head cocked slightly to the side. With a very sure, sudden swing, he caught Harry's upper arm, making him turn sideways. Harry wasn't exactly a bad fighter, he picked up some good fighting stances and moves from video games that his Muggle cousin Dudley often played. Harry raised his arms, karate-style, in a block, and then slowly inched forwards. He looked ridiculous.

" What are you doing?" Draco dropped his arms down in exasperation. " You look stupid."

Harry punched him promptly in the stomach. Draco flinched but didn't cry out. It wasn't too bad; maybe he'd be able to breathe again tomorrow. With the wind knocked out of Draco, Harry saw a good opportunity to strike again – but not too hard; if he hurt Draco badly, he'd be expelled. Harry pushed Draco backwards, and Draco's foot landed in a ditch. His leg sank knee-deep into dark, thick mud.

" Aw, gross…" Draco murmured, trying to pull his leg out before Harry would strike again, and he succeeded. Harry miscalculated his push and ended up tripping face-down into the dirt. They were both horribly dirty now, like toddlers rolling around in a sandbox. Draco saw this as a good opportunity to plant a muddy footprint in the center of Harry's red Gryffindor robes.

" Hey! I just got those cleaned!" Harry grumbled, jerking upwards and then sending Draco into some hedges with a forceful shove. Draco pushed aside wayward branches, snapping some in two as he did, and then spun around to face his opponent again. 

There was an adrenaline-fueled fury in both of them; neither thought this was necessary; both found it exhilarating. 

The clouds above had gathered in a mean-looking jumble of thunderclouds, and Harry didn't like what they foretold. He paused his fist midair to look up into the sky just as a thunderclap rattled the air, vibrating the windows of Hogwarts castle. Then, the sky seemed to be torn apart as a torrent of rain sailed downwards onto the parched Hogwarts grounds. Harry could barely see Draco through the haze of rain.

" Seems like a rip in the sky – is that what they call it?" Draco asked, suddenly. A human look seemed to appear on his face, and Harry admitted inside of himself that this humane look almost surprised him.

" Doesn't matter now." Harry wiped at the mud that had coated his shoes. " Want to go inside?"

" So you're wimping out?" Draco rolled his eyes. " Good old Potter. Reliable in every way but a fight. Go ahead, walk away then. See if I stop you."

Harry felt his face turn hot in anger. " It's stupid to fight in the rain. We could really …"

" Get hurt." Draco finished. " Go back then. Don't forget your little red wagon and lollipops, alright?" He made a rude gesture with his hands and then turned away, slipping his hands gently into his pockets in a waiting stance. He seemed to be unafraid of Harry under all circumstances. Turning his back to an opponent in a fight could be taken as a stupid thing to do or as a large insult to the opponent.

The blow that came to his back sent him forwards face-first into the mud. He stopped his face a hair's width away from the puddle and then turned to face Harry again. He pushed himself up so he was kneeling and said: " How likely of you to strike only when I turn my back. Dishonorable, Potter. Even the Dark Lord doesn't strike from the back." Draco's eyes flashed when he saw he'd struck a spark inside of Harry. " … Your parents would know, wouldn't they?"

The insults had turned cruel. Harry felt his fists ball up in rage. " Malfoy, I'm warning you, stay **_back_**!"

Draco stood up, completely coated in mud. He smirked and replied: " What could you possibly do to me?" He swung outwards and then grasped Harry's sleeve. Tugging it upwards sharply, he got Harry's arm out of the way so that he could land a blow to Harry's stomach.

Harry's knees buckled for a second but he stood strong.

The soft hum of rain was growing quieter in Draco's ears. He shouted: " What? You're afraid to hit me back now?"

Harry frowned. " Are you alright?"

Draco was swaying on his feet. The rain was soaking him, his hair was a disarray, plastered down on his forehead. His eyes were wild, almost feverish, and his face had gone from pale ivory to a waxy white. He shook his head: " Of course I'm alright. Why wouldn't I be?" He felt his stomach growl.

The truth was, Draco hadn't eaten in a few days. He drank water, of course, but he couldn't stomach anything down. He was worried and tense and irritable, even Goyle and Crabbe noticed his worse-than-normal foul mood. 

" We should go inside." Harry looked worried.

Suddenly, a loud pitter-patter echoed behind them. Someone was running furiously towards them, splashing water in all directions. In fact, there were two people. The first to appear through the thick rain to the fighting boys was Ginny. " See, Hermione, what did I tell you? _Fighting!_" Ginny said, aloud, her freckled cheeks growing red with a blush at the sight of a heroic Harry, standing in a powerful stance.

Hermione emerged from behind her, frowning. " Harry… Draco… what do you think you're doing? Get inside. What am I, your mother?"

Draco's eyes softened, seeing her. He swayed again and then leaned against the Quidditch post, supporting himself with his weight. His eyes fluttered closed for a second.

Ginny turned to Harry. " I saw you guys fighting, before it began to rain. I got Hermione right away. I figured she'd be able to stop you both."

Harry bit his lower lip worriedly. " I'm sorry, Hermione. He - - he said some nasty things, and…"

Hermione turned to Draco. He was shaking his head. " You were the one who started, insulting my family's honor." He took a step forwards and raised his hand threateningly. " You won't get in my way, Potter, so long as I live, I won't let you stop me from what I deserve, and I know I…" He stopped. The ground seemed to rise up to meet with him. There was heavy thudding in his ears and the world was swaying, becoming washed away along with the torrents of rain streaming from the ground.

Before Hermione could jump forwards to catch him, Draco Malfoy had fallen.

*

" Eat up, now, young man." Madame Pomfrey forced the spoon filled with chicken soup into Draco's parted lips. 

" I can feed myself, you know. I'm not crippled." He muttered, taking the bowl from her hands and then putting the spoon to his lips on his own.

" I know, I know, dear." She stood, then smiled fondly. " You've grown to be quite a young man from the last time I saw you in here."

" Well…" Draco sat up in the bed, crossing his legs Indian-style. "… my mother made me eat dinner. Even the vegetables."

She laughed.

Draco turned the charm up a notch. " That's a lovely shirt, madam."

" Alright, what do you want, you scoundrel?" She asked, laughing.

" Visitors. Erm, well, one visitor." He said.

" Who would that be?"

" A Hermione Granger, fifth year. She should be in Flitwick's class right about now." Draco said. He watched the expression on Madame Pomfrey's change from one of amusement to one of serious doubt.

" Now, you want to see Miss Granger?"

" Did I stutter?" He caught himself and then smiled sweetly. " Yes, Hermione Granger. Why, do you think she's mad at me?"

" No. In fact, she came up a few times, asking about you. I'm just surprised that you have a friendship between each other, that's all." She stood up and then straightened out some invisible wrinkles in her apron. " Well, I'll go fetch her right now. Any particular reasons to see her?"

" I want to tell her something." Draco replied. He reached over to the table to the side of his bed and then plucked a rose from the crystal vase. He spun it around between his fingers, smiling to himself.

Madame Pomfrey sighed. " Ah, to be young again." She slowly walked away.

*

Hermione stood beside Draco's bed, her brown eyes truly concerned. Draco was silent for a moment, unsure of how to begin. He glanced down at the rose, then pushed it towards her awkwardly. Hermione took it, then grinned, though she tried to hold the grin back.

" For you…" He mumbled. " I'm sorry. You were right."

She traced a single soft rose petal with her fingertip. " I feel at blame. I just… I'm afraid to choose."

" It's alright. I forfeit. I know what the truth is." He looked up to see her face. " I'm not exactly Prince Charming, right? I know, I do have a fever, but at least I'm up to being honest to you. And to myself." His stomach squeezed, this time not of hunger but of nervousness. " How do I say this…" 

Hermione felt sudden warmth gathering in her ears.

" … I do like you, all right? I really do." His voice grew hoarse. He cleared his throat and continued: " Actually, you wouldn't believe how much I like you. That's why I'm going to call it quits. I don't want to hurt you anymore. No more fighting with…" He paused before he could say the name: " Potter."

A drop fell to Draco's hand. It stood on his index finger before slowly rolling down and sinking into the quilt. In his hurry to speak, he had stopped facing Hermione. Now he looked up to see large tears tumbling down her cheeks.

" Hey, look, I don't want to make you cry anymore either, okay? I just… I don't want to do it anymore." He shook his head. " I don't know if you understand or not, but… well… I hope you know this was really hard for me to say. Really." He twiddled his thumbs. " The coast is clear. You win, Harry Potter." He spoke the last four words very softly, looking downwards at his hands.

He looked up again. " I won't make the mistake my father did. I'm not going to pray for vengeance. I've learned my lesson. I'd rather die lonely then hurt you again." He brought his knees up and then put his forehead on his knees. He sat in that position for a while. Hermione shifted and the rose in her hands slipping so that it was tilted towards the floor. Odds and ends spilled from his mouth, unsaid words:

" I…"

" I'll miss you, Hermione."

" Really bad."

" When it gets cold sometimes in your life, you're supposed to make it warmer for others, and yours will warm up as well. Someone said that once. I… I'm making it warmer for you."

" So…"

" Don't feel bad."

" I'll always like you. From afar, maybe. I won't tell anyone, either, but…"

" I'll always be there."

He didn't look up again. _Malfoy men don't cry. If someone sees you cry, you're a dead man._ Draco waited to hear Hermione's response. 

He felt her hands wrap around him, her head lean against his forehead. She kissed his cheek for his face was unavailable for her adoration at the moment. She sat down beside him on the bed and just hugged him. 

__

Don't make this any harder for me. Draco thought, ordering her to leave in his mind.

Instead, he felt a faint whisper in his ear: " … I knew it. That just proved it. I… I know I like you too. I like you as a woman does a man." She closed her eyes and her eyelashes tickled him. " … that was the most sincere, sweet, honest thing I've ever heard a boy say."

Draco scoffed. " You mean it?"

" I mean it."

He looked up, his eyes glossy. " What about Potter?"

" I love him, but like a brother. He always was a brother to me, a wonderful one at that. We're just far too close and alike. It would be boring." She laughed. _When he kissed me, it simply felt safe and warm, but when you kiss me, I knew it, right then. That risky feeling, that excited feeling… that was love. _Hermione added, in her mind.

Then, she kissed him again, just like he kissed her once, not so long ago, just to see if she was right.

__

I was right. She thought, in the middle of it. _And I think I finally made the right choice._

*

Author's Note: 

I dunno. Should I be apologizing? This is officially the end, people, which means T=H=E E=N=D. No mas! Zero! Zip! No dinero. ~_~ Don't ask.

Well, sorry, H/Hr people. Something inside of me changed. I saw a glorious, perfect Hr/D ending, and this fic was so perfect for it. That, and I got a total of 18 emails from various readers begging me to make it so, or they'll kill me in numerous creative ways. 

Now, shameless self-advertising: I HAVE LOTS OF OTHER H/HR FICS! AND AN Hr/D FIC THAT IS IN THE MAKING! OH YEAH! I'm so special! Hey, if you are sad about the ending, here is a epilogue… I think that is what they call it…

__

Ginny and Harry got together. 

Hermione and Draco lived happily ever after, too.

Ron seemed oddly interested in Lavender Brown.

But that's another story.

"And that was that." – someone.
    " If your life is cold, make other's lives warmer, and yours will warm up as well." – Draco Malfoy (quote made up my me… YAY!)
REVIEW
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	19. Wouldn't you rather read about ponies?

Note to angry H/Hr fans:

I realize that H/Hr reviewers might be angry, but please, as an author I have a right to change the plot however I want it. And halfway through, I realized that this story just felt –right- as a D/Hr. I've always felt Draco was my favorite character, and even though all my other stories are H/Hr, I decided that it would look best as D/Hr in the end. Besides, I have gotten very long, begging emails of D/Hr fans, and they were very polite and very requesting of what they wanted, and H/Hr fans seemed to have done nothing but yell at me in their reviews and attack my character.

Therefore, I felt a stronger affiliation for this story with D/Hr. Besides, as an author I have artistic right and license to do whatever I want with a story. And if I wanted to change my mind halfway through, so be it. And I never guaranteed it would be either pairing, from the beginning I posed the question: What would they choose? 

Even in the summary of the story, it says so. And look at the two main characters I chose – they are Hermione G. and Draco M. If you couldn't figure it out from the beginning that the story could turn D/Hr at any point, you shouldn't have read it. If you cannot handle reading a story that dares to take a twist or do something different after leading the audience to be sure it will go one way, then you must be a very shallow reader.

I'm sure everyone would have liked Romeo and Juliet if they lived together happily ever after. But where's the story's impact?

I'm sure everyone would have liked Sirius Black to live, but where's the story's impact then?

So, please, if you dislike it, find another story, that promises H/Hr from the beginning, and live a life where there are no bends, twists, and surprise endings in stories. I myself started the story hoping for H/Hr, but while writing, I felt I had the right to change it as I pleased. Its my story, and as far as I remember, writers can do whatever they like in the story. I don't have to give in to pressure of readers to make the stories exactly like everyone would like it.

Its never guaranteed that a story will end in a way that will make you feel all good and snuggly inside, and you'll go home and read more stories that all end exactly the same way, constantly feeding your ego and your sureness of what you envision should be an ideal ending.

This story, from the beginning, gave MANY clues as to what the initial pairing was. And any dense cubic-zirconium head who would start reading it would be VERY aware that, from the beginning, it would be a VERY close and tight struggle between H/Hr and D/Hr. Never mind my author's notes, the author has a right to react differently to her own story, right? And everything I wrote from the beginning was true, at the time. I did intend at the beginning to make it H/Hr. I did, at the end, feel converted to D/Hr.

How could anyone start reading a story and ignore blatantly any clues, and be convinced that it will end JUST the way they like it? What's the point of reading, if you are never surprised, never react or think about what you read?

There's stories for people like you angry H/Hr fans… they're called "fluff". One chapter, OOC, pointless stories that will give you a quick shot of happy H/Hr goodness, and you can go off without worrying that there could be others thinking otherwise.

I still write H/Hr stories, don't get me wrong, but it annoys me how H/Hr fans seem to have overall become closeminded and cruel, attacking ANYONE who doesn't feel the same way. D/Hr and R/Hr fans seem so much more allowing. I'm still an H/Hr fan, but I'm disillusioned with other fans.

As of such, I will simply quote Lemony Snicket, " Wouldn't you rather read about ponies?"


End file.
